Places | Kajsa HA

My Election Day: From Basic Level to Analyst

December 8, 2016 2 Comments

I had an excellent election day, divided in three clear sections. It seems the country also had an excellent election day, with a few exceptions discussed below.

1. Family time
In the morning, my five year old asked:

– Why am I not going to school today?

I answered:

– Because today is election day.

– What is election? Came the response. A Masters Degree in political science and a PhD in African Studies are not necessarily assets when getting to the basics. I took a deep breath and tried:

– It is when we chose who will decide in the country. We call that person president or prime minister.

– I want to be president! I will decide what to do and then you will decide what we should not do, ok, mama?

Morning proceeded calmly with family time. Our nanny had left the night before to go vote after a short campaign to join her party.

2. Voting

In the afternoon, we went to my husband’s childhood neighbourhood where he is still registered as a voter. There was no queue, voting was swift and easy in the double voting register at the Chemu school in Community 4, Tema.

Of course, I did not vote as I am not a Ghanaian citizen (yet). It was great to see the positive atmosphere and how elections rather brought people together – at least in this community – than created divisions.

3. BloggingGhana in the Situation Room

BloggingGhana’s GhanaDecides project was approached about being part of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and the National Peace Council’s observer group. The group convened during the whole election day in a situation room of sorts, but as I needed to be part of family time and voting, I only joined in the afternoon.

team

I was introduced to the team of 30 or so “yellow shirt” observers collating reports from all the regions of Ghana, the 10 “green shirt” observers or analysts – where I had to pinch my arm, because that where I belonged! BloggingGhana/GhanaDecides had its own table filled with bottles, chords, and screens (see photo above). After a while the members of the highest level of the observers – the decision room stopped by after a tour including other situation rooms and the electoral commission.

A major convo was around the Jaman North Constituency now voting tomorrow after the failure of party agents to first agree on the electoral roll and then of the electoral commission to get materials out to the 92 polling stations. Jaman North is located between Ivory Coast to the west, the Bui National Park to the north, and the Tain constituency to the east that voted one day late in 2012 for similar reasons. How many voters are registered in Jaman North? I have not seen any official data yet. Will follow up tomorrow!

Another thing we see as the results trickle in is that the turnout seems low – after some 30 000 votes have been counted, the turnout hoovers around 57-58%. In 2012, the turnout was close to 80%. Following this closely too.

At this moment, most observers have returned home and a few of us are wrapping up the day to the sound of provisional MP results trickling in.

See you online tomorrow – until then follow GhanaDecides.com and #GhanaDecides on all social media channels – over night run by our diaspora team!

My Week, USA

Imagining Africa at the Center: #ASA2016

November 28, 2016 No Comments

This week, I am off to the 59th African Association Annual Meeting, this time held in Washington DC with the theme Imagining Africa at the Centre: Bridging Scholarship, Policy, and Representation in African Studies.

It will be my third African Studies conference this year after DakarFutures2016 and this summer’s GlobalGhana in Cape Coast. I also enjoyed last year’s ASA in San Diego. So, I am looking forward and over the next week I will be taking in as much as I possibly can on academic talks, networking sessions, book exhibits and also Washington DC! I am especially excited to meet up with a special person from DakarFutures working at the renowned Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and a new contact from Wikimedia Foundation. I’ll also visit Ghanaian Designer David Adjaye’s new National Museum of African American History & Culture, also in the Smithsonian Museum Park (photo from NMAAHC below, I believe it is the brown box next to the Washington Monument).

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture Architectural Photrography — Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture

At the ASA2016 meeting, I will for sure be spotted when presenting a paper on higher education together with colleagues from the Ghana Studies Association and when I chair a so called Africa NOW! session on the ongoing election season in Ghana. Details below!

Panel: Debating the Quality and Relevance of (Higher) Education in Ghana

Fri 2 Dec, VIII-D-1 4pm.

My Work: Data for and from the Higher Education Sector in Ghana

In an era of knowledge economies and sustainable development, the importance of higher education has reemerged (Mkandawire, 2015; Teferra, 2014). However, current data on higher education institutions (HEI) in Africa is not easily available in terms of basic descriptive data on institutions, research output, faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

This paper is a first report from a case study to understand data collection in and analysis of the higher education sector in Ghana, a country that has a mix of public and private higher education. The methodology is literature review and interviews with key stakeholders to clarify the role in collecting and managing HE data by international university associations, GOG/ministry of education, state institutions, quality assurance bodies, and – on a local level – universities.

Data and analyses hold promise for nurturing this important sector, especially since the sector is growing quickly and is centrally placed politically. Two factors that also mean data ages quickly. For instance, the rise of private higher education since the 1990s provides an almost unmapped terrain in terms of data. With a decolonial approach, I argue that data on HEI must be open and free, but also made a government priority to solve the sustainability issues of collecting data and crafting relevant indicators for strategic and sustainable development of the higher education sector on the continent.

Africa NOW! Democratic Gains from Election Season 2016 in Ghana

Panel Introduction and Open Discussion Sat 3 Dec, 9-10 am in meeting room “Maryland A”.

Ghana is seen as a beacon of hope for the democratization process on the continent and has managed to consolidate its democracy further with each election since 1992. There has been peaceful handing over of power in 2000 and 2008, a contested election in 2012 which was settled peacefully in the supreme court. This year, several new developments including reforms, which have led to that only seven parties are contesting the presidential seat have taken place, Ghana also has a new Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei, replacing Kwadwo Afari-Djan who served as the Chair of the Electoral Commission 1993 to 2015.

The surrounding world has also changed since the last elections, notably with terrorism threats closer to home with the attack on Cote D’Ivoire’s Grand Bassam, in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon. Further, oil and commodity prices are at an all time low. Many countries in Africa are experiencing power shortages and Ghana in no exception. The US elections have also been extensively discussed in Ghana to the point of almost overshadowing a local debate.

Further, an important role in the relative democratic success in Ghana is played by media and civil society monitoring the electoral process. Many laudable initiatives providing platforms for education and debate have been implemented. This year, the threat of limiting the freedom of speech by for instance monitoring online conversations and shutting social media down during the elections which is has been discussed under the so called “spy bill” and by the Inspector General of the Police Service, have added another important issue to address by the civil society.

With this background, this panel will discuss what can be expected from the general elections on December 7, 2016, especially in terms of democratic gains or losses.

Panelists: Dr. Kajsa Hallberg Adu, Ashesi University (convener), Dr. Jeffrey Paller, University of San Fransisco, Prof. Gretchen Bauer, University of Delaware, and you!

Ghana, Social Media

The Role of Social Media in Ghana’s 2016 Elections

November 19, 2016 No Comments

On Thursday, I was a guest on the radio program Interrogating Africa discussing what the role of social media is in Ghana’s upcoming elections.

Interrogating Africa is an initiative by the Institute of African Studies and broadcast on University of Ghana’s Radio Universe 105.7 FM every Thursday 2-3PM. I was interviewed by my former class mate in the PhD program, Dr. Edem Adottey.

We talked about what social media is ( a revolution), how Ghanaians debate and engage online, how many Ghanaians have access to the Internet (about one third), Post-Truth Politics and false news, what the Kalyppo Challenge really was all about (that’s another post!), and how social media will impact on elections (more research is needed!).

You can see the interview here:

Ghana, Sunday Reads

Sunday Reads Nov 6, #KajsaHASundayReads

November 6, 2016 No Comments

This week I read:

This interesting article by Salim Virani on usability of websites in Africa:If Africa is leading mobile web usage, why are so many African websites non-mobile? A discussion started by me(!) on Twitter when University of Ghana told me the online registration for graduation could not be done on a phone or device.
An article about the lack of African research by Celia Nyamweru on the interesting portal African Arguments.
Writing a Paper (PDF) by George M Whitesides was required reading for the online Author AID course I am taking this fall.
Citi FM’s coverage on the deplorable situation on mental health in Ghana.

This Swedish article I wish was available in English for all (ok, more folks) to read:

5. This Interview in Resume with Carl Waldekrantz, TicTail founder.

This week I watched no video, because of the craziness that is my life! But I am reading Amy Shumer’s book with the hilarious title The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.

Tell me below what you are reading!

This post is part of my #KajsaHASundayReads series. Inspired by personal role models, Ory Okolloh Mwangi and Chris Blattman, I want to share articles I read with my followers on a somehow regular basis.

Crafts, Ghana, Parenting

My Best Activity with Children: PLAY DOUGH

November 4, 2016 No Comments

Weekend is coming up and what should you do with your kids? Forget about giving your children an electronic device for some peace and quiet, an iPad has nothing on homemade play dough! Play dough is also cheaper than almost any other activity and allows for developing sensory intelligence and creativity!

I make the dough anew maybe once a month and keep in in a plastic bag in-between uses. (You can also dry the play dough art your children create on low heat in the oven, but humidity in Ghana means the dried dough does not stay dry…)

Recipe:

2 parts* flour

1 part table salt

1 part water

a dash of oil (to not make the salt dry out the hands needing the dough, i prefer coconut oil)

food colouring (optional) * cup, decilitre, etc

I give my children household items like forks, spoons, cookie cutters, rollers, plastic containers etc. to use to shape the dough. A metal garlic press is the best tool for creating snakes/flowing hair. A knife can cut shapes. A tooth pick makes eyes. My children, just like myself back in the day, can entertain themselves with this recurring “game” for hours.

Enjoy the weekend with your family!

Ghana, Sunday Reads

Why I loved Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

November 2, 2016 1 Comment

I should have posted this as a SundayRead, because it was my weekend read and I really, really enjoyed it. I have been reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

I have heard it being referred to as “an ambitious debut” probably because it tries to chronicle the slave trade and its aftermath through one family in one book. That has many dangers to it: can become heavy with historical references, empty on a personal level when bigger narratives are the aim, or just a novel that should have been a textbook. This is none of that.

I cried, I laughed, I lived through the many many personalities you meet in this book (the book opens with a family tree, love books that start with visual schema!) My favourite characters were beautiful Effia and her queer son Quey, Ness Stockham and her tragic fate (climbing down that tree!), and Willie Black and her father H. But I feel like I got close to all of the characters – I wonder, how did Gyasi accomplish that?

While the book balances on an educational tight rope, it skillfully blends themes such as identity, evil, the origin of the word “obruni” for white person, American slavery history such as Jim Crow, the historical advent of mass religion, happiness, the list can go on. Maybe in a few places it feels like contemporary debates are “placed” in the story, or discussed with a contemporary lense: homosexuality, interracial relationships, how to apportion blame in Ghana for the slave trade, however it is those same “educational” debates that makes the novel so relevant and make me consider this book as a text for a class I teach at Ashesi.

We can tell it was a labor of love because the language is sweet, decorated with gems such as “She dipped her to a into water so cool she could taste it “ (p.196), “hell was a place of remembering , each beautiful moment passed through the mind’s eye until it fell to the ground like a rotten mango, perfectly useless, uselessly perfect” (p.28) or “He had never seen a woman move that slowly. It was like she had to wade though deep and mucky waters to get to him” (p.250). And the sex scenes!

The book accomplishes what many political debates, pertinent protests, and academic works have not: to show that we are all one family, one that is hurting, and desperately needs to step into the cold water, share the
burden, and just come back home.

Ghana, People, PhD

Kwame Anthony Appiah gives the 2016 BBC #ReithLecture

November 1, 2016 No Comments

This year´s BBC Reith Lecture is given by philosophy professor Kwame Anthony Appiah. As you can possibly tell from his name, he hails from Ghana and is his lecture series he heavily draws from this – something for all of us who love Ghana to feel proud of and learn from.

Two lectures have already been aired (I wholeheartedly recommend listening to the podcasts). The first two of the total of four lectures cover Creed and Country. The last is to talk about Culture. The third lecture was recorded in Accra some two weeks ago and I was there! It was a Saturday and I happily tweeted:

Yeah, so people who spend Saturday night at an academic lecture are the best. #ReithLecture in ??@bbcworldservice

— Kajsa Hallberg Adu (@kajsaha) October 15, 2016

The lecture with the tittle Mistaken Identities: Colour used the amazing true story of William Anthony Amo, a Ghanaian boy who became professor of philosophy in Germany in 1738, as its red thread (I also mention him in my dissertation!) and discussed race with nuance and insight. He spoke about the “racial fixation” and reminded us there is no such thing as race, really.

Afterward, there was an opportunity to ask questions and I was thinking of something my daughter had told me…when the host of the evening asked women present to add their voices to all the men asking questions, my hand went up.

Afterward when the Ashesi staffulty present took a photo with Prof. Appiah we were reminded that he also sits on the board of the university!

2016-10-15-20-30-10-2

If you want to find out if my question made it to the final cut of the 2016 Reith Lectures with Kwame Anthony Appiah, tune into BBC Worldservice, Channel 4 or the podcast today!

Ghana

A DayatDVLA: Update (spoiler: my license is ready!)

October 31, 2016 No Comments

The other day, I was back at DVLA.

Here is an update:

I now have my license! The DVLA head actually called me to say it was ready. How do I understand this – personal service instead of public improvements?
I was told my articles were seen by the DVLA boss(!) and after reading them online he called the Tema office (!!) asking “What is happening?” (one of my articles were mysteriously reposted on GhanaWeb, see here).
My earlier visits had equipped the Tema office with some gravitas, for instance Mr. Osei-Bio reported he had taken to opportunity when the DVLA head called to ask my question “why are licenses not printed here?”
The information sound message was now back.
I was told about general renovation and new signboard planned. I am to follow up.
Still no prices posted on walls. I sent a WhatsApp about this to Mr Osei-Bio.

In conclusion, I think I will continue to follow Tema DVLA. I would love to hear of anyone else “adopts” a state agency, makes friends, and follow their updates to better service.

Ghana

Third Time A Charm? Reporting from a #DayatDVLA

September 30, 2016 2 Comments

This year, my driver’s licence expired and needed to be renewed. I made my first visit to DVLA in April, payed the dues for the renewal, but did not get to complete the process. I left with a scribble on my application and used it until July when the scribble expired and the “capture machine” was restored. In July, I completed the application process and left with a temporary license. This week the temporary license expired, so I got on the dirt road to DVLA (see photo below) again. Here is my story.

file-2016-09-30-13-23-43

When I entered, I was shown to room 7 by a man in a yellow very saying “Lion Security” (more on that later). The room has a number of desks and about half of them are covered with boxes with licenses marked with “February 2015, March 2015” and so on. I would guess there were a couple of thousand licenses there waiting for their owners. I asked if I could take a photo for the blog, but was asked not to. I was immediately told, “Oh, your license is not ready”. I was asked to sit down while my temporary license was extended.

Instead I walked past crowds of waiting people to the head of DVLA Tema, Mr. Osei-Bio’s office (see photo below) to get an update on the issues we discussed in July. The same issues I had filed complaints about to his predecessor in April. Mr. Osei-Bio looked tired and did not recognise me until I sat down and introduced myself. He then smiled and answered all my questions with patience. These were my issues:

– Card printing delays

-Lack of information, possible solutions I listed in my first complaint were:

a central reception
signs and step-by-step instructions
personel wore uniforms or at least name tags
fees were clearly pasted on the wall (online onlyvehicle licensing fees are available, not drivers’ licensing fees).

– Security personnel instead of information staff.

file-2016-09-30-13-24-30

I was told all the printing is being done in Accra and is dealing with a two year backlog. This was confirmed when I later when to pick up my extended licence and was asked “When did you first apply? 2014?”. My friend Jacob that was mentioned in the April post also had had his temporary licence renewed since 2014. I again explained what a hassle that is to us drivers: having to spend several working days just to check on a license that we have all payed for, not having a valid ID (banks do not accept the Temporary license). I was told now the extension is not three months, but until the end of the year. By then, they believe the printing of the backlog of card will have been done. My extension reads 30/12/2016. However, why can the printing of licenses not be done in Tema ( and all the other DVLA districts) so the day that you come to renew your licence, you also leave with your new license? The cost for manpower involved in extending licenses for years and handling licenses must well exceed a few card printing machines? Add to that cost the productivity loss for all of us “coming and going” and being robbed of our legal identification.
file-2016-09-30-13-22-54
The lack of information was even greater this time. The electronic signboards were not working (see black screens on the building in the last photo). The audio message was off. No central reception had been created. Rather the “Customer Service Centre” at the gate was closed and replaced by two aggressive security men. No visual step-by-step instructions exist anywhere. However, I saw prices for services being posted on the wall, and I thought to myself: now that is an improvement from July. Exactly what I asked for!

[Prices]

file-2016-09-30-13-21-21

But it was not so. The prices on the wall is for a new initiative of “Premium service” where you supposedly get served quicker by DVLA. As the regular prices are not displayed anywhere, I can’t tell if it is a good deal though. (Also what is versions 1, 2, 3 for replacement of license?) Why create a premier service if you cannot perform the basic service?

file-2016-09-30-13-22-09

I told Mr. Osei-Bio that when DVLA does not paste information anywhere, see defunct electronic screens on the admin block on the photo above, they play us customers in the hands of connection men or the security guard I met when walking in. The security guards have been there for about a year and serve both as information givers and security. However, the onsite bank is guarded by a policeman with a weapon. I questioned why DVLA Tema need 6 security men on post? Mr. Osei-Bio said this is normal, all establishments need security. Perhaps, yes. But even more, do we not need information? To me, it seems that when drivers in and around Tema come back for the second-third-fourth-fifth time to get something they have payed for, they have every right to be angry and demand change. Is that why the security is really needed?

When I was leaving I wanted to record the speaker to prove there was no customer service announcement and also take a photo of the closed customer service unit. I had asked for permission to take photos by Mr. Osei-Bio when I was in his office and while he denied my request to take photos indoors, he said I could take photos “outside, on the premises”. My mistake was not asking security at the gate. Quickly they came up to my car and escalated the situation from me taking a photo and asking about the customer service announcement that was no more, to them screaming “Do you know there is security here” and “Who asked you, WHO ASKED YOU TO TAKE PHOTOS?” Their aggressiveness was uncomfortable and unnecessary and was not appeased by me saying I had a meeting with Mr Osei-Bio (“Mr. Osei-WHO?”) and had his approval. They forced me to park my car and walk back to the building and what for Mr. Osei-Bio to come. To me this buttresses my point above on an organization that cares more about protecting itself than being of assistance to its customers.

The only thing that keep see hopeful at this time is how well I was received by Mr. Osei-Bio (“You help me to do my job better”, he said) and how much people around me at DVLA agree when I speak up and say: THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. I urge every one of you who read this to “adopt” a government agency, liaise with its leaders, and demand better service.

Ghana, People, Social Media, Teaching

What’s in a Name? Ama Ata Aidoo, CEGENSA and Voting with Your Feet

September 20, 2016 No Comments

Just like most other netizens and media consumers in Ghana, I have been following the issue of famous Ghanaian academic and writer Professor Ama Ata Aidoo’s walk out of an event where she was to be honoured. What happened on Saturday September 3rd was: Aidoo walks in, notices that the banner and the program has spelt one of her names wrongly. She walks out and while organisers beg her to return, she doesn’t. Source and photo: Article on CitiFM.

Aidoo’s daughter Kinna Likimani was the first one to report the issue on Twitter. Later she posted her tweets on Facebook as a post which was shared extensively. Full disclosure: I work with Kinna Likimani, respect her professionally, and like her a lot personally. Likimani wrote both about her mother’s relationship to Ghana and to being honoured. She explained:

“Ghanaians know how to do things right. We do.

What will not be happening is Ama Ata Aidoo enduring any bad treatment or anguish over honors or celebrations. No. Certainly not when folks like Korkor Amarteifio have set a standard.

Writers only ask to be read. That’s all.

My mother often quotes Efua Sutherland: “I was sitting my somewhere”. She lobbied for nothing, asked for nothing.

My mother is a highly sensitive person. The anguish would have followed her home and she would have wallowed for weeks.

She has done for Ghana and Ghana has responded with awards, honorary degrees, events. We thank all.

But at 76 years, Ama Ata Aidoo, after 60 years writing, publishing and teaching, will walk out.”

Then last week, Journalism professor Audrey Gadzekpo, wrote a compelling piece about this story from another point of view. Full disclosure: I have met prof Gadzekpo a number of times and she is one of my academic/activist role models. Gadzekpo suggested there were no winners to Aidoo’s walk out. She highlighted the important work of the event organizer Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy at the University of Ghana, CEGENSA, in advocating for women (I have blogged about their pioneering zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment for instance) and suggested:

“I point out the bona fides of the Centre not to excuse the misspelling on the banner and in the programme heading, but to simply provide information on a little known centre caught in the eye of a public storm and now defined by the unfortunate incident for people who had never heard of it or know very little about what it does.

I have read several comments suggesting the Centre did not know the correct spelling of its honoree’s name and had disrespected her by getting the spelling wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth.

CEGENSA does know how to spell Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo’s name and is very familiar with her work. In all other correspondence with her and her foundation Mbaasem, before and during the planning of the competition, the Centre got the spelling right.”

Although, I understand the organizer CEGENSA’s situation as discussed by Gadzekpo: the overwhelming negative publicity focussed on a centre that has created real change for women, and the looooong enduring debate that followed – and that now I am adding to – I would like to look beyond “who was right/wrong” and look to what we learned.

You see, I think Aidoo was not only sensitive or annoyed, but wanted to send a message about standards. Something like: Mistakes happen, but normalisation of those mistakes is dangerous! It is not OK to use misspelled banners and brochures, especially for an academic centre, especially when honouring someone and the mistake is in the name of that person, especially when you are an institution focused on women’s rights in a patriarchal society and role models are so few (although many of mine highlighted in this blogpost).

Maybe Aidoo was thinking about the embarrassing mistakes in official communication of late in Ghana, most notorious of them the State of the Nation program for 2016 that…I just can’t. Read Elizabeth Ohene’s furious account. In addition, Ansu-Kyeremeh lists a few other instances when attention to detail has been lacking in Ghanaian communication.

So here, I have to disagree with Gadzekpo. Sure, walking out is like sending an angry letter, it is not pretty. However, there is a win to making this extra “T” a big deal. After Ama Ata Aidoo walked out, the issue of striving for excellence in communication has been discussed in Ghana for TWO WEEKS, so walking out was successful from the point of view of creating a debate. As a lecturer of Written and Oral Communication, a learning moment for a nation on the importance of attention to detail, makes me happy.

But what about the young women who had written stories for the competition? Gadzekpo listed the winners as Nana Yaa Asantewaa Asante-Darko, Margaret Adomako, Ruthfirst Eva Ayande, Sarah Faakor Toseafa, and Awo Aba Odua Gyan. Their award night was ruined! Or was it really? I think Aidoo will find a way to read their stories, and so will many more of us (perhaps they can be published on the CEGENSA website?) While the young writers might have been initially disappointed, soon I think they were rather empowered to see a woman who can: that a woman has choice. If she wants, she can always vote with her feet.

Now, would I have done the same? Would I walk out from a festive writing competition held in my honour because of my convictions? Probably not. But then again, I am not Ghana’s foremost trail-blazer feminist, writer, educator, and activist. I only aspire to be like her.

Ghana, Parenting, Personal, Social Media, Sweden

My Children on the Blog

September 19, 2016 2 Comments

So in-between blogging, researching, and teaching, I do have a private life. The main part of that life is my two children. I have mentioned them every now and then here on the blog, like when they were born: Selma in 2011 & Ellen in 2014, and in a post on our racialized lives “You are yellow and I am brown” and in a post on how to carry a baby Ghana style (one of my few videos).

However, I would like to write a little more here on the blog about my children, things we do together, and challenges we face as a family. I will do so under the category: Parenting.

While some might feel one should not “expose” children online, I see my online life as a part of my life and it feels strange to “hide” them away from my blog. Also as my children grow and frankly become more fun to hang out with, I think I have more to say about them, their activities, and about life with children more generally. I am mindful of that they are their own people who should get to tell their own story, but until they start their own blogs (oh, what a dizzying thought!), I think I can say quite a bit more without compromising their integrity.

If you have ideas on topics you’d like to read relating to life with children, do leave a comment!

Ghana, Positive, Sweden

African Fashion Week in Sweden #AFWS2016

September 3, 2016 No Comments

It is the time of the year when otherwise gray and black clothed Stockholmers can OHHHH and AAAHHH to beautiful wax print, refined raffia, and curve hugging colour!
The African Fashion Week Sweden is on its third year and growing strong! Founder Ayesha Jones who also started the Gambia Fashion Week, explains in a blog interview why she started the week:

“I felt Sweden was lacking a platform for black/African creativity to be uplifted and celebrated. In a society were people are so diverse and multicultural I don’t understand why no one did this before me and I’m a strong believer of not pointing out flaws if I don’t have suggestions on how to adjust them.

I also wanted to do something that hopefully would leave an impact in the world and create a legacy that the next and future generations can be proud of and enjoy.”

I have my agents out and hope to give you more info after the main event today, 3rd Sept.

As a Swede living in Africa, I am so happy the fashion conscious but very conservative Swedes finally get a flavour of African fashion!

1. Family time In the morning, my five year old asked:

2. Voting

3. BloggingGhana in the Situation Room

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1. Family time
In the morning, my five year old asked: