Archive for October, 2011


The debut list “40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa”: dominated by musicians+overwhelming number has a very small social media presence+some did very little to support social causes

Filed under: Africa and branding, Creative Industries, Steppes, Syncing Steppes — Leave a comment
October 26, 2011

updated Nov 3, 2011

Mfonobong Nsehe worked as a reporter for Business Daily, Kenya’s largest business newspaper, for two years covering technology and venture capital. Born and raised in Nigeria, Mfonobong lived, studied, worked and holiday-ed in various parts of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

In September, this Forbes contributor summoned his readers to submit nominations for a list of the 40 most powerful celebrities in contemporary Africa.

Number 16: Alek Wek, 34, Sudanese, Supermodel

Within three weeks, over 7,500 entries flooded in. The debut list of The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa includes actors, cerebral authors, musicians, movie producers, supermodels, TV personalities and athletes, drawn from all across Africa and traverses the generational divide. Timeless artistic greats like Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (ranked No. 1) and Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi are listed alongside younger up-and-comers like famed Kenyan crooner Eric Wainaina, Ivorian soccer sensation Didier Drogba (No. 3) and Nigerian screen goddess Genevieve Nnaji.

The list is dominated by musicians. Steppes in Sync expert and contributor thinks this is for a reason: the penetration of TV and other video-related media is still not big enough to overtake the music personalities. This is why the image stars that made it on the list mostly stem from such countries as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, where image-based media (like TV) are more developed than in the rest of Africa. Especially if you talk about Sub-Saharan Africa.

Evidence of this trend were shown by the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ South African Entertainment and Media Outlook 2011-2015.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ South African Entertainment and Media Outlook 2011-2015 expects a decrease of 3.8% in the nation’s music industry

The Kenyan-born media queen Patricia Amira (#40) is one of the continent’s most popular talk-show hosts. Her daytime talk show, The Patricia Show is broadcast in over 45 African countries and watched by over 10 million people. The show focuses on indigenous achievements and human interest stories across Africa. Amira contributes to a range of organizations including; ONE.org, African Leadership Network, Free World Generation and Kuona Trust.

Number 18: Dobet Gnahoré, 29, Ivorian, Musician

And Neill Blomkamp (#21) the South African movie director and scriptwriter shook the world with District 9, Africa’s first sci-fi which tells the story of a bunch of extraterrestrial refugees who find themselves in a South African slum. The movie attracted rave reviews from international critics and raked in over $200 million from the box office. Blomkamp is currently working on a new movie, Elysium, scheduled for release in 2013.

Methodology applied: sifting through the nominations for the individuals with the highest numbers of votes, and then measuring their media visibility (exposure in print, television, radio and online), number of web references on Google, TV/radio mentions and their general clout across the continent. Ideally, a robust social media presence would have been an invaluable yardstick in determining the intensity of influence these individuals exert over their enthusiasts. However, apart from Senegalese hip-hop act Akon, Nigerian beat maker Michael Collins A.K.A Don Jazzy and a handful of others who boast 6-figure followers on Facebook and Twitter, an overwhelming number of Africa’s most influential celebrities have  either a very small or non-existent social media presence.

Impact on society: these days, Africa’s favorite idols harness the “currency of celebrity” to impact social change on many levels. Take Liya Kebede, for instance: The Ethiopian-born supermodel has leveraged on her celebrity status to raise awareness about maternal health issues. She currently serves as the World  Health Organization’s Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and child health. She also founded the Liya Kebede Foundation, which seeks to reduce maternal mortality rates in Ethiopia and around the world by funding advocacy, training and medical programs.

Ivorian soccer star Didier Drogba has also built on the cult-like following he enjoys at home to call for peace in his war-torn country. Cote D’Ivoire had been enduring a civil war since 2000. After he led the Ivorian national team to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, Drogba famously made a plea to the combatants, requesting that they drop their weapons in pursuit of peace. They listened. A few days later, there was a cease fire. Apart from playing a pivotal role in the peace process, Drogba also donated a $5 million endorsement fee he earned from Pepsi to construct a world-class hospital in his hometown of Abidjan.

A handful of celebrities on this list have done very little to support social causes, but make the list anyway because of the overwhelming number of votes they received and the immense acclaim they enjoy across the African continent and the world.

The List:

  1. Chinua Achebe: Nigerian, Novelist
  2. Youssou Ndour: Senegalese, Musician
  3. Didier Drogba: Ivorian, Soccer player
  4. Angelique Kidjo, 51, Beninoise, Musician
  5. Akon, 38, Senegalese, Musician
  6. Wole Soyinka, 77, Nigerian, Playwright
  7. Salif Keita, 62, Malian, Musician
  8. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, 46, South African, Musician

    Haile Gebrselassie, 38, Ethiopian, Athlete – Number 13 on the 2011 “40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa” list

  9. Oumou Sangare, 43, Malian, Musician
  10. Femi Kuti, 49, Nigerian, Musician
  11. Toumani Diabaté, Malian, Musician
  12. Oliver Mtukudzi, 59, Zimbabwean, Musician
  13. Haile Gebrselassie, 38, Ethiopian, Athlete
  14. Khaled Hadj Ibrahim, 51, Algerian, Musician
  15. Samuel Eto’o, 30, Cameroonian, Soccer Player
  16. Alek Wek, 34, Sudanese, Supermodel
  17. Liya Kebede, 33, Ethiopian, Supermodel
  18. Dobet Gnahoré, 29, Ivorian, Musician
  19. Genevieve Nnaji, 32, Nigerian, Actress
  20. Koffi Olomidé, 55, Congolese, Musician
  21.  Neill Blomkamp, 32, South African, Movie Director

    Number 30: Ngugi Wa Thiongo, 73, Kenyan, Author

  22. Souad Massi, 39, Algerian, Musician
  23. Baaba Maal, 58, Senegalese, Musician
  24. Hugh Masekela, 72, South African, Musician
  25. K’Naan, 33, Somali, Rapper
  26. Amadou and Mariam, Malian, Musicians
  27. Awilo Longomba, Congolese, Musician
  28. Eric Wainaina, 38, Kenyan, Musician
  29. Binyavanga Wainaina, 40, Kenyan, Author
  30. Ngugi Wa Thiongo, 73, Kenyan, Author
  31. Freshlyground, South African, Musicians
  32. Chimamanda Adichie, 34, Nigerian, Writer
  33. Rokia Traoré, 37, Malian, Musician
  34. Tuface Idibia, 36, Nigerian, Musician
  35. P-Square, 29, Nigerian, Musicians
  36. Don Jazzy, 30, Nigerian, Music Producer
  37. D’Banj, 31, Nigerian, Musician
  38. Neka, 31, Nigerian, Musician
  39. Asa, 29, Nigerian, Musician
  40. Patricia Amira, 33, Kenyan, TV Personality
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How India reconnects with its North-East

Filed under: Geosemiotics, Getting around and between Steppes, Steppes — Leave a comment
October 26, 2011

Harjeet Johal, a London-based journalist with an experience of living in India, wrote on MONOCLE‘s site recently about the way India gets its regions more interconnected, something that cuts down on violence caused by the many-decade-long difference of vision for India’s future. Johal writes:

Had anybody from Guwahati in Assam wished to travel to Delhi 15 years ago, they

The Airports Authority of India plans to make north-eastern Indian city Guwahati a hub of air connectivity

would have had only two affordable options: take a 27-hour train, or stay at home. Assam, part of India’s north-east region which borders China, is, like all of its neighbouring states, mountainous and swathed in tea plantations, mists and mysticism.

Its people are not only virtually physically disconnected from India – a slip of land above Bangladesh links them to India’s bulk – but spiritually and emotionally they are considered very much “other” by the Indians of Bombay and Jaipur.

The region became disconnected from the national consciousness. Investment and growth was rare, yet political unrest was only too regular: the Maoist rebellion currently searing India’s east coast has its roots in the north-east.

Yet now the strange sounding states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, Mizoram and Sikkim are finding themselves more than ever connected back to a national sense of India. And this is not due to the steel railway lines that once attempted to bind and weave together this vast and beguiling nation, but to a growing fleet of Airbus A320s and Boeing 737-800s.

According to Wikipedia, Guwahati is serviced by the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport at Borjhar, about 20 km west of the city center. Air connections have improved considerably in the last couple of years and all major domestic airlines fly into Guwahati. Helicopter services are operated from Guwahati to Shillong (30 min), Tura (50 min), Naharlagun (Itanagar), Tawang (75 min) by Pawan Hans, a helicopter service. Guwahati airport averages about 95-100 arrivals and departures a day. Guwahati is serviced with direct flights to Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore,Chennai, Ahmedabad and other major cities in India by different airlines. Druk Air connects Guwahati internationally to Bangkok and Paro twice a week. A modernization plan is underway at Guwahati airport right now and once it is completed, the Airports Authority of India plans to make Guwahati a hub of air connectivity.

The liberalisation of Indian civil aviation has created a thriving low-cost carrier sector, where

Guwahati railway station at night. The city still lacks direct connectivity through railway to Bhopal Junction, Indore Junction BG, Gwalior, Pune and many central as well as western cities of India.

efficient operators such as Spice Jet, Indigo and Kingfisher Red offer fares that allow the average Indian to do something they have never been able to before: travel around India, quickly, cheaply and in comfort far beyond that of a carriage on an Indian train –

On 19 December 2007, it was announced that Air Deccan would merge with Kingfisher Airlines. Since Indian aviation regulations prohibited domestic airlines from flying on international routes until they had operated in the domestic market for five years, it was decided to instead merge Kingfisher Airlines into Deccan Aviation, following which Deccan Aviation would be renamed Kingfisher Airlines. This was because Air Deccan was the older of the two airlines, and therefore would be the first to qualify for flying on international routes.

or a European low cost carrier. There are now over 40 daily flights into the north- eastern states from around India. With speed, and powered with jet fuel, the north-east is seeing the real benefits of a re-connection back into the nation.

As with all these economy-class flights not only come more tourists, but also vitally for any regeneration: the business men. Assam’s growth rate has risen from 2.6 % in 2000, to 8 % in 2010. Perhaps because of this economic boom and the reintegration back into a

Spice Jet India Route Map

national sense, peace also seems to be a possibility. The rebellion which cost 998 lives in 2009 is now being directly challenged. The notoriously bitter partisan political parties have come together to sue for peace. The government has recently reacted in kind with a huge infrastructure programme worth around €3bn; a first in this once-considered investment black-hole. This is a strong endorsement given the federal government’s “2020 Vision” once claimed that “the challenges to ensuring peace and progress in the region are formidable.”

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Snapshot of growing South-South cooperation between Pacific nations

Filed under: South-South, Steppes, Syncing Steppes — Leave a comment
October 22, 2011

According to the Pacific Islands Report, Papua New Guinea signaled a shift in its foreign policy with a 100 million kina ($44.3 million) commitment to neighboring Solomon Islands. This is certainly among PNG’s largest commitments oversees, in particular to a Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) member. MSG is an intergovernmental organization, composed of the four Melanesian states of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as well as the FLNKS of New Caledonia.

It is also deemed that PNG and the Solomon Islands will work to formalise a similar agreement with other MSG nations (Vanuatu and Fiji) and other neighbouring Pacific nations outside of the Melanesian sub-region.

Round-table talks also sought to push for economic integration, where both countries agreed to remove all economic barriers and imposition of work permit requirements, labor mobility and trade restrictions including tariffs between the two countries.

In addition to the approximate US$200 million provided to Papua New Guina each year by its biggest donor, Australia, PNG also receives major funding support from Japan, the European Union, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Volunteers from a number of countries, including the United States, and mission church workers also provide education, health, and development assistance throughout the country.

On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), starting in Honolulu in November, two efforts are underway to write binding rules. One is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a possible trade agreement among eight small Pacific-rim countries and the United States. Another negotiation is underway in Asia. It builds on trade agreements among 10 Southeast Asian countries and other Asian partners. It is still missing an agreement among China, Japan and Korea, but a ‘CJK’ accord is now in discussion.

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