Since her 2008 debut In Jodi’s Bedroom, there has been a long wait for Beverly Tawiah’s follow-up.  FREEdom DROP, her brand new free-to-download EP does not disappoint. I sat down with the singer-songwriter to discuss the new material, her creative partnership with long-time collaborator Jodi Milliner, and her musical influences.

Afripopmag: With your first EP In Jodi’s Bedroom, you worked heavily with producer Jodi Millner. You’ve also worked with him a lot on this project. How would you describe your creative partnership?

Tawiah: Jodi is my right arm. He’s like one of my best….nah, he is my best friend. He’s like my brother. He knows me very well. So it’s really easy to create with him. And I’ve known him for years. We went to school together. And we clicked straight away. And we’ve been close ever since. It’s one of those ones. I love his work. I’m a fan of his.

Your main musical influences seem to be a lot of fellow British singers like Eska and Vula for example.  Is that fair to say?

Yeah. I met a lot of those British singers you’re talking about years ago when I was doing the live circuit; back in the day doing Kindred Spirit with Michelle Escoffery. She’s awesome. She had this really good night once a month. And that’s actually where I met Eska. Also where I met Charlene Hector. She’s another singer who’s awesome. I think I probably met Vula through that. A lot of singers who are my friends now, awesome singers who have gone on to do great things. I even met Corrine Bailey Raye there, and I started to get work. I did backing vocals for Corrine. So that was a good time in my life. And before I did that, I did like Ten rooms. Like where I met Amy Winehouse. And that was like once a week. Loads of people would pass through there. I came up doing shit in the London Underground circuit and I’ve seen how there’s so many talented singers. I’m British so I’m going to support (UK singers) but there are also artists stateside who I really love.

Who are they?

Meshell Ndegeocelo. I love her. And I had the opportunity to meet her and play her some of my music and she was very nice about it. You know when you meet someone that you proper respect, you’re scared to meet them. She called me up and grilled me for like an hour like… “What do you want to achieve? What do you want from music?” I love her. I also love Erykah Badu. And I Absolutely love Ella Fitzgerald. She’s like a big one for me. When I first heard an Ella Fitzgerald record I just became obsessed with scatting. I love Minnie Ripperton as well. Her song La Fleur is one of my all time favourite songs.

You have such a varied taste in music? Where does it come from?

My family. My mum was a Christian woman so I grew up listening to a lot of gospel. And she would actually only ever play gospel in the house. My dad listened to a lot of blues and jazz. But really where I got to listen to other people is at my uncle’s. When he’d look after us, he’s be bussing out the Mary J Blige and Erykah Badu. I’d be in primary school singing Spice Girls and then I’d just switch it up with some Erykah Badu. So he like introduced me to a lot of music. Even Hip Hop. He would play Wu Tang a lot.

When you first came out, I remember people placing you in the neo-soul genre. Do you prescribe to genres. What would you say your genre is?

I don’t see myself as a neo soul artist. Obviously when neo-soul was poppin I was definitely inspired by a lot of neo-soul art. But I wouldn’t say that my music is straight neo soul. I’m inspired by a lot of things.

One of my fave tracks on FREEdom Drop is the bonus track – the cover of Bobby Caldwell’s Open your eyes. What song of yours would you most love to see someone cover? And by whom?

Oh my goodness, that’s a hard one. Who would I want to cover my song? I’m torn. I’ve got two artists in my head. Does the song have to be from FREEdom DROP?

Yeah.

Okay I’d love to see Andre 3000 do a version of my song Sealion

 Nice. By the way, what did you think of Andre 3000’s latest cover of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black for the Great Gatsby soundtrack?

You know what? I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve only read the comments about it. I haven’t listened to it yet.

He uses an electro approach in that cover. Would you ever venture into a more electro sound?

Definitely. I’ve writeen stuff in the past that have electronic beats. It’s a whole different space and it’s pretty cool. As long as I’m drawn to that beat, then I’ll write to it. I’m ready to do mad projects. I’m ready to go in so that’s definitely an option. And back-tracking, I just want to say about the cover of Open your eyes Bobby Caldwell actually responded to me after he heard the cover. He was like “I love it! I love it!”And he tweeted about it. He was like when you come to New York, I’d love to do a duet. That was mental.

In your new song Teardrop, you sing “Far cry from the girl I used to be; growing up quite awkwardly.” Could you explain what you meant by those words?

It was about a few things. For example being British and Ghanaian. You are a Londoner, you’re born and raised here, but certain people don’t see you as British, they see you a  African. Then you go to Ghana and they call you English girl. Also, when I was growing up, I found conversation and confrontation really difficult so I felt awkward. I’d write about it  And that was kind of my freedom, my release. I’m a lot better at talking now.

What are some of the great moments of your career so far?

I’ve been lucky to have a few. Touring with Mark Ronson was one of the biggest. It was such a big deal. You know I did that for two years and we went everywhere all around the world. Just living life. An awesome experience. And I learnt a lot. Another moment was the other day when I went to see my parents. I walked in the house and my mum was playing FREEdom Drop. It just felt so nice. My parents have been awesome. Super supportive, which has been great because I know a lot of my friends’ parents have told them that they have to be a lawyer or a doctor.

What were the main lessons that you learnt touring with Mark Ronson? 

Well people think being a musician and touring is easy. There’s so much work that goes into it. So being able to see it first hand was amazing. And now I’m venturing out doing my own thing, I know what to expect and how to run it. And I know how to handle the industry better. The music industry is super interesting. You have to have tough skin and stay true to yourself. There’s always so many opinions on what you should do or shouldn’t do. It’s important to do things that you want to do and that you 100% love or you won’t be ably to sell it and be happy about it. Like if I put out a tune and someone says, “I absolutely hate it.” I’m fine with it because I love it. But if I put something out there that I’m a little bit unsure and someone goes, “that’s wack,” I’ll be upset because I was unsure about it anyway. I think for your heart and peace of mind, it’s so important to not compromise.

I agree. It’s been a pleasure talking to you, T. Just to close, please tell our readers what your favourite film and album is.

Fave film is Kill Bill. I’m obsessed. I’ve even got a poster of the bride in my front room. Fave album is really difficult. It really does depend on what day it is. I’d say Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Catch Tawiah’s NYC live performance debut featuring Muhsinah and Carolyn Malachi at Subculture on June 25th. Buy tickets here.

The Brother Moves On (TBMO) is a performance art collective making waves in the pulse of Johannesburg’s indie live scene right now. They’re new kids on the block that you can’t get enough of. Southern African audiences will soon know why as the group embarks on its 3-week, 6-country, 14-show tour via the Firefest Route.

Pioneered by the MTN Bushfire festival, the Firefest Route is a network of music festivals that encourage and promote regional cultural exchange, collaboration and knowledge sharing among its member festivals.

Taking place within a week of each other, the Firefest Route includes the AZGO festival in Mozambique happening on May 24 and 25; The MTN Bushfire Festival in Swaziland from May 31 to June 2; The Indian Ocean Music Market, IOMMA in Reunion Islands from June 4 to 6; The Safiko Music festival also in Reunion Islands from June 7 to 9 and the launch of the music fiesta Fireball, happening at the Assembly in Cape Town on May 31.

In addition to their Firefest Route performances, The Brother Moves On will have shows in Botswana, Namibia and Johannesburg in June.

Their magnetic pull lies in the blueprint of the band. They’re an art-bending experimental act that fuses eclectic musical influences with an impassioned theatrical twist. A vibrant and conscious collective with a deep sense of care for their work.

They make “transitional music for a transitional generation” which they call “brown baby music.” This brand affirms the evolving identity of a post apartheid South African generation blurring racial lines and finding their place globally.

Hence the coining of the concept of a “brown band” is attributed to TBMO’s lead vocalist, Siyabonga Mthembu.

The group formed between 2008 and 2010, a time where besides Blk Jks, there was a dearth of Joburg based brown bands such as Impandecore, Kwani Experience and Ntjapedi, who had gone off the radar.

TBMO brings with them a circus of the imagination to the indie scene, pushing their site specific art form. They perform anywhere from roof tops, museums to makeshift spaces including their own home.

The name of the collective is a word play on The Brother Mouzone, a character from the HBO drama series, The Wire.

It explores the notion that members are an impermanent part of the process and are free to move on, giving way to reinvention.

Members of the band have changed over the years, except for the core players which include the brothers, Nkululeko, Siyabonga and Zelizwe Mthembu and Raytheon Moorvan. Current bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Ayanda Zalekile, joined the band in early 2012. Current drummer, Simphiwe Tshabalala, began performing with the collective in 2009, left for a short time and returned in 2011.

They relate to The Brother Mouzone on some level.

“Brother Mouzone is a hitman from the hood and he is far from the stereotypical yet he is so essentially hood.  He reads the New Yorker, trades stock and speaks impeccable English.  He is also a game changer with his own rules to playing the game fairly. There’s a righteousness to his work.  In our own way we’d like to view ourselves as that difference,” says vocalist and guitarist, Raytheon.

Encountering them outside their home turf, at the launch of their second EP, ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) TBMO looked ordinary offstage.

But on it, they were like reincarnations of Jimmy Hendrix, Freddie Mercury and Harari – bare chested with gold, multi-coloured and printed tights, engaging with their hypnotic fusion of funk, afro jazz, psychedelic rock and tribal sounds.

Lead vocalist Siyabonga delivers their politically charged social commentary with dark humour and irony and each song is a ritual.

“Our content is first person politics and prayers that beckon the gods to assist us with this life. The conversations are about the act of being present and the value that comes out of our perception of that presence,” Ratheon says.

ETA, produced by Paulo Chibanga of 340ml, includes the two tracks, Good Times and Ya’Khalimbazo. With a narrative modelling a typical miner’s experience, Good Times is a cathartic ode to the Marikana Miners strike massacre of 2012. Yak’ahlimbazo pays homage to the political violence of the 1990s with specific reference to the self-defense unit that used to police Caleni “Kalambazo” section in the east rand township of Tembisa.

Their debut EP, The Golden Wake brims with the same witty social awareness and commentary, focusing on a character called Mr Gold, who highlights the pitfalls of migrant labour. Gold is a recurring thematic metaphor in TBMO’s work, and with it, the collective interrogates issues of value.

This interrogation continues with their latest project: a theatrical exhibition called The Brother Breaks The Bullion opening at the Goethe Project Room in Maboneng, Joburg on May 23.

Explaining the motivation behind the exhibition, says Ratheon, “In early 2012 Siyabonga and I came across an online article on a claim by Aus­tralian Bullion Company, ABC Bullion, that a portion of the 1 kilogram gold bars being traded between them and other reputable gold Bullion refiners and distributers, were in fact, filled with tungsten instead of gold. After much dispute over protocol, a single bar was cut open on site and re­vealed to be approximately 35-40% Tungsten. Needless to say, the condition of this single gold bar in the world has some serious im­plications for the way we interpret value. Our psychic wealth, this idea we all share, is based on a fallible value system that deems its worth to be intrinsic.”

The exhibition includes a staging of a gold vault of the collective’s design; photographs of the band by various artists and theatrical and musical showcases. It closes on June 20.

Not one to be complacent and always moving, The Brother Moves On is the thinking man’s kind of band. Their debut album comes out at the end of the year.

For More Information on the MTN BushFire Festival go to the Official Website

single is out 8 July. A few weeks prior to that if you’re knocking about in Brooklyn you can catch Petite Noir supporting Solange Knowles at the Northside Festival.

The latest incarnation, Snoop Lion

Headlining act, the man formerly known as D-O-Double-Jizzle, has performed here a few times before but it’s the first time he’s coming in the form of his latest musical reincarnation, Snoop Lion. As excited as we are to see the West Coast rap veteran, we’re glad this won’t be a gig aimed only at the 80s babies.

The cool kids of Africa’s pop scene will be all over this. Nigeria’s international golden boy D’Banj will be on stage in his   all his kokomaster swag. Fresh from his first wedding anniversary and the release of his latest album Away and Beyond, Nigerian superstar 2Face will also have the ladies swooning (as he does so well).

Camp Mulla is representing Kenya’s 2-5-Flow while the DRC’s biggest musical export Fally Ipupa is also on stage. Rounding out the southern tip of the continent will be South Africa’s answer to Tracy Chapman and overnight megastar Zahara, and Durban’s own Professor, Big Nuz and the choirmaster himself Zakes Bantwini.

Doors for MTV Africa All Stars KwaZulu-Natal with Snoop Lion open at 17:00 CAT on Saturday 18 May, and the first performance starts at 18:30 CAT.

To win a set of double tickets to this awesome gig, like our Facebook page and drop us a comment. The winners will be announced on Thursday 16 May. Good luck!

Afripopmag has a pair of tickets to the show to give one lucky winner. Send us an email on contact@afripopmag.com and tell us the name of one of the artists performing at the show. Title your email ‘Saluting the black president’. And cross your fingers!

The winner will be announced via facebook and twitter, and also sent an email on Thursday 16 May.

Go here for more info on the show: http://www.facebook.com/events/442859539126708/

Tickets £20 in advance online from http://www.agmp.co.uk, http://www.eventim.co.uk, http://www.ticketweb.co.uk, http://www.seetickets.com,http://www.gigantic.com, http://www.stargreen.com or from the 24-hour ticket line: 0844 249 1000

Tracklisting

Roberto-Took You Vs Louie Bello-Electric Relaxation
Banky W-Yes/No Vs Nicki Minaj-Moment 4 Life
Nameless-Deadly Vs Chris Brown-Fine China
R2Bees-It’s Alright Vs Justin-Suit & Tie
D’Banj-Fall In Love Vs Alicia Keys-Empire State Of Mind II
Fnaire-Sah Raoui Vs Twista-Wetter
Mzekezeke-Uphumzeke Vs Consequence-Whatever U Want
Wanlov The Kubolor-Smallest Time Vs Ciara-Love Sex Magic
Kenrazy-Ti Chi Vs RichGirl-He Ain’t wit Me Now (Tho)

In another life, for under a year in 2003 I was on the team that edited Y Magazine, the print magazine that belonged to Jozi-based youth radio station YFM once iconic, now defunct. That August we wheeled out the obligatory women’s day theme with which to dress the cover. Grasping at straws, we searched for prolific female singers with sufficient urban youth relevance. “Femme Fatale: Mzansi’s Ladies of R&B Inspire Us All” was the cover line we settled on, never guessing what fates awaited our bevy of cover girls:  Tsakani ‘TK’ Mhinga died 3 years later from a drug overdose. KB Moysilanyane is an actress with a singing past. Wanda Baloyi juggles the worlds of Smooth Jazz and Gospel nowadays, I hear. Lira, most remarkably, turned her fortunes around from being the awkward R&B addition to the roster of 999, a record label spear-headed by Arthur Mafokate, the proclaimed King of Kwaito.  A career-changing shift to her current middle of the road, adult contemporary style combined with a generically Afrocentric and wholesome girl-next-door appeal is what transformed Lira into a household name from here through Kenya to Nigeria. It’s hard to imagine that an African artist singing standard R&B would have been selected to perform at president Obama’s inauguration in January as she was. Every one of her releases has since been a South African Music Awards contender – notably not in the R&B grouping. It seems that category is now reserved for artists whose names will be forgotten by the next awards ceremony.

Even Loyiso Bala who for a while positioned himself in the R&B male singer space has defected to the more forgiving (and more lucrative) faith-based category. And who can blame him?

SA-made R&B is pretty much a non-starter that suffers from an identity crisis that it seems even South African Hip-hop, for all its woes, is finally beginning to triumph over. To see the competitors in the Best Hip-hop category (Khuli Chana, Proverb and Reason) multiply nominated elsewhere for Best Male Artist signals another small victory in rap’s long standing battle for mainstream acceptance.

Globally, there’s talk of a renaissance in R&B music, which for so long was only good for the hooks of Hip-hop tracks or bastardised further with the one-size-fits-all treatment by the likes of dance-pop producer Dave Guetta. The emergence of left-leaning (and popular) singer/songwriters like Frank Ocean or the Canada’s Drake-endorsed TheWeeknd and even hipster favourite Solange promise a kind of spring for the genre internationally.

But the more things change, back here in South Africa it seems, the more things stay the same and even regress.

With no formidable champion in sight everyone has been content to have Reggae music bubble in its own separate little underworld to what the industry counts. As far as the South African mainstream is concerned Reggae doesn’t exist.

Inexplicably the two are now linked in the new category best R&B/Soul/Reggae. This award will be presented tonight in the part of the 2-day ceremony which is not broadcast.

There is nothing in common between these two genres other than their inability to scrape together a following large enough to support sales. The only logical step from here would be to scrap them both it seems. At least that would be better than this slap in the face disguised as props for nominees Kabomo (Memory Remains), Khaya Mthethwa (For You), Lulu Dikana (This is the Life), The Muffinz (Have you Heard?) and Zaki Ibrahim (Every Opposite).

The MTN SAMA 19 will be broadcast live on SABC1 on Saturday May 11th at 20h30.

The awards will also stream live. For more info visit http://samusicawards.co.za/

Shot guerilla style  in Los Angeles,  the goal was to capture the super eclectic duo having a great time.

“Whether it was sneaking shots performing on the Black and White wall on LaBrea, stopping traffic to ride bikes in random residential neighborhoods, or calling our friends at 2am to do an impromptu party scene, it was all on a whim to be honest,” they told AfriPOP!

The two Somali-born sisters grew up in Toronto and now call L.A. home. “FAARROW” is a combination of the duo’s Arabic names. The English translations are “faith” (Iman) and  ”arrow” (Siham).

Interested? Check them out on their site

We’ve all been there.

Decoded, an African music lyric platform, is here to do all the hard work for you. Founded by Julius Sea and one of our AfriPOP! Socialites Chika Uwazie earlier this year, the site fills a void in the growing African music industry ecosystem. After six months of planning and building, the duo launched the Decoded platform earlier this year.

A number of things make Decoded a standout venture already, including the fact that they work  in full collaboration with the artists themselves, a rare thing, to bring the correct  artist- approved lyrics to their audience. Nigerian soul singer Bez was the first artist to provide his lyrics to the site. Singer Omawunmi (pictured above) also followed suit.

As of mid April, about 3000 people had accessed their site; the most popular artist at the time being M.I. with his “Chairman” release. They also have lyrics from musicians in Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana and currently working with South African artists.

We sat down with COO Chika Uwazie to discuss Decoded.

What is decoded about in your own words?
Decoded is a music platform and we are publishing lyrics of African artists. The reason why we started it was so that other people, not just those in Africa, but those outside Africa as well, can understand what we’re saying. And understand the slang as well as be able to see the English translation. So basically, decoded publishes the lyrics of African artists.

It’s easy enough just to publish the lyrics, but you take it to the next level by actually translating the words. Why?
Because we  are beginning to see African music take its place on the global stage. As you saw recently, African music was represented at SXSW (Editor’s note: see AfriPOP!’s coverage here). And, also recently I also attended Social Media Week Lagos, where there was a whole day dedicated to African music. Definitely, we are seeing people want to understand African music better and why we say what we say. Plus, there are so many different languages throughout the African countries that we are trying to break that barrier of people actually understanding it?

So talk to me about how you and CEO Julius Sea thought up “Decoded”?
It was a very random day because we actually have another venture which we hope to launch. He called me and said, “You know, lyrics are a big gap in music on the African continent”. So we started exploring it. We realized that two percent of Google searches are for lyrics [Editor’s Note: Uwazie cites this article  for further reading]. We also realized that when someone types in an artist’s name, they are mostly likely to type the word, “lyrics” after [in the Nigerian market]. We also looked at Google in Nigeria and some of the top searches were how to rap and how to freestyle. So, we saw there was a need so how could we create a platform for the lyrics but also has the social context.

Chika Uwazie is co-founder and COO of Decoded.

What was the decision to model yourselves around the Rap Genius?
We believe rap genius is a great website that sparks conversations about hip hop as well as an innovative lyric website.We saw a major gap in the music space that there was lack of a lyric database for African music. We also see that a lot of our lingo derives from African music and should be documented. Lastly since there are so many languages across the African continent we think Decoded will help Africans understand songs from other countries better.

Which brings me to another fascinating aspect to the business, which is unlike I’ve seen anyone do is that you are involved with the artist in the process of collecting and translating the lyrics.
We work very hard to reach out to the actual artist and not only to get the lyrics from them but to get the confirmation. We see that works better, because we get the correct lyrics. We see many sites that carry the wrong words in their lyrics. So we are trying to very hard to crack that.  And you can see through social media that many  artists have endorsed what we are doing by sharing content. It is very successful that way.

In this process of collecting the lyrics, is there anything that stood out to you about the changing African music industry?
As it gets more sophisticated, I am seeing other platforms join and link together. There’s a lot of cross collaborations taking place which I think is great. It allows a lot of people to be more out there for people who want to really listen to it. I am also seeing the music transcend Africa. For example, we saw a lot of our Africa artist be nominated for BET Awards. I’m definitely seeing more and more of our music is reaching outside of Africa.

Are you making money? How do you monetize?
I can‘t discuss too much. For now we are partnering with different websites and different companies that will help us monetize. We’re always thinking about that because we literally just launched.

Check out Decoded and follow Chika Uwazie

Where are you from/live?: I am a Zimbabwean and I live in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Places to find you online: You will find me here blog, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
When and how did you enter the Social Media game? My entry into social media was heavily influenced by my sister Angie many years ago, probably in 2006. However my ‘real’ use of it started with my blog where I used to share some of my poetry initially in 2005. When I joined Twitter in 2009, I realized the power of using all three to get ‘my message’ out there and so began the journey that has taken me to this very moment.

What did you mostly tend to use it for? Many years ago I used to live in Australia and I recall back then getting quite upset with the Zim news coverage and indeed Africa as a whole. I lost my patience one day when I encountered someone who, in my opinion, asked me a few silly questions about my background or whether I had bought the clothes I was wearing at the Sydney Airport on my way in. These kinds of these things would happen regularly, and initially I would get very upset but that day I stopped and changed my approach. I’ve always been an analytical person so I figured out that two main problems were to blame in these small cases.

Firstly we here in Africa tend to know more about them than they do of us; and secondly our story (Zimbabwe and indeed Africa) tends to be written by someone else. Given that background, why would they know about our malls, our lifestyle here in Africa and the fact that I don’t have a lion as a pet? Why would they know all this unless we started to tell them our story ourselves?  It was then that I made a conscious decision to become less emotional and frustrated about these things and focus more on sharing my experiences and thoughts openly. I’ve been doing just that ever since then. So my social media ‘angle’ is to play a role in sharing my Zimbabwean and indirectly my African narrative. Essentially I’m a storyteller and I believe life is a journey so I share mine using social media.

What do you tweet about/ Facebook post about? On Twitter I share information about different interests usually linked to Zimbabwe and, of course, Africa and my journey throughout all that. With Facebook, I tend to joke around a bit more about life but still make time to share knowledge in the process.

How does social media help you connect with like-minded Africans? It has enabled me to ‘meet’ a LOT of interesting people both African and non-Africans based all over the world. The way I use social media might be unorthodox perhaps but if I wanted to learn more about a particular country or region I would simply follow a few people from that country and/or region and engage them. I tend to look for fellow bloggers and/or people I refer to as ‘opinion leaders’ who aren’t afraid of sharing their opinions openly. Robert Alai from Kenya and Sentletse from South Africa are examples of this. People like these tend to give you an interesting perspective on things in their countries. Social media has helped me link up with people I would otherwise have little access to. I‘ve been fortunate to have two separate meetings with two Zimbabwean government ministers, all thanks to social media and how I use it.

What is your message on social media? My simple message is and has been now for a long while: Africa is the Future.

If you could have one person on Twitter follow you, who would it be? If President Robert Mugabe were on Twitter, I would want him to follow me. I would love to pick his brain about a few things. However he’s not on Twitter, so my one person already on twitter in this case would be Nigerian Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

What is the role of social media in the “Africa” conversation? Each year I can tell that there is growth of social media use on the continent. It is well documented that a large number of us Africans use social media via our mobile phones. This trend will continue as handsets become more widely available and competitively priced. Android phones have played a massive role in this I believe. In terms of the Africa and social media, I feel that this will only increase with other tools like WhatsApp and others. I know for a fact that we want to share information with others and SM is definitely enabling that for us. Facebook, blogs, Twitter and so forth continue to reach other people once again enabling the sharing of ideas and knowledge.

I also see us developing our own social media tools to suit the African landscape, particularly tools which use mobile phones. I see more linkages between the African based on the continent and those based across the globe. With more links, I literally see a different conversation as the 2 groups discuss and share ideas and knowledge.

Who is benefiting most from the rise of Africans on social media? I’d like to think that we are ALL benefiting from the rise of social media in different ways. I’ll give you a real example, after we discussed domestic violence on #263Chat; I was sent various private messages via Twitter and email from some women who had suffered from domestic violence in the past. They thanked me for the work I do for #263Chat and in particular for enabling us to discuss this very sensitive issue that day. The fact that there were others out there who shared similar stories helped them in some way. So, the exchange of information and networking took place right there.

On the other hand, the rise of Africans on social media sites is helping those non-Africans learn more about us and how we really live as we tackle the way we’re often portrayed in various media outlets. African social media users are all playing their role in shaping the African narrative which is vital and is helping the way the rest of the world views our African continent.

Who should every African follow on Twitter? If you really want to know more about Africa, I suggest one follows a number of Africans from different African countries to get a real feel of what’s happening here. This will help shape one’s opinion of Africa in general because Africa is a massive continent. However, I would add @AfricaOTBlog @ThinkAfricaFeed @faithcnn @kenyanpundit @TrevorNcube
@jchimhanzi @toluogunlesi @Techzim to name just a few.