The Age of African Conversations

The Age of African Conversations

Conversation Age graphicI don’t consider myself a writer or even a journalist, but I will admit that I am opinionated and prone to debate. If anyone ever spends any time with my family you’ll notice that we constantly get into debates, some outsiders say we like to debate for the sake of it. That may be so, but so far that attitude of challenging the things even I know are normal has kept me going for this long so why stop now. A large part of what I enjoy about a good debate is the conversations that are spawned from the different sides. As the old saying goes “Opinions are like A**holes, everybody’s got one”. And the fun of blogging or writing for that matter is sharing your opinion as part of the larger conversations that ultimately can change the world around you.

When I heard about Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton‘s efforts to create a collaborative e-book titled “The Conversation Age” I jumped at the opportunity to lend an African perspective to the project. As Gavin puts it “Far from seeing an implosion, we are living in a time of proliferation — ideas build upon ideas, discussion grows from seeds of thought and single headlines give rise to a thousand medusa-like simulations echoing words whispered somewhere on the other side of the planet. All this — in an instant.” And that is the idea behind the Conversation Age and the e-book which I will be contributing a chapter to. Having never written much beyond this blog, this will be my first entrance into a formal writing project and from the list of current contributors, I’m in great company. So in the next few weeks I’ll be racking my brains coming up with 400 words to express my opinion on what the conversation age means to our growing African community. If you would like to contribute to “The Conversation Age” project please email Drew before the end of day tomorrow (Wednesday, April 11th) with your topic. “The Conversation Age” will be dedicated to fellow blogger CK‘s mother who passed away last week while 100% of the proceeds from the book will go to Variety the Children’s Charity – which serves children across the entire globe. All submissions are due by April 30th.

Update: Here is the final list of contributors to the “Conversation Age” ebook. You might not recognize some of the names but these are definitely authors worth reading.
Gavin Heaton

Drew McLellan

CK

Valeria Maltoni

Emily Reed

Katie Chatfield

Greg Verdino

Mack Collier

Lewis Green

Sacrum

Ann Handley

Mike Sansone

Paul McEnany

Roger von Oech

Anna Farmery

David Armano

Bob Glaza

Mark Goren

Matt Dickman

Scott Monty

Richard Huntington

Cam Beck

David Reich

Mindblob (Luc)

Sean Howard

Tim Jackson

Patrick Schaber

Roberta Rosenberg

Uwe Hook

Tony D. Clark

Todd Andrlik

Toby Bloomberg

Steve Woodruff

Steve Bannister

Steve Roesler

Stanley Johnson

Spike Jones

Nathan Snell

Simon Payn

Ryan Rasmussen

Ron Shevlin

Roger Anderson

Bob Hruzek

Rishi Desai

”Phil Gerbyshak

Peter Corbett

Pete Deutschman

Nick Rice

Nick Wright

Mitch Joel

Michael Morton

Mark Earls

Mark Blair

Mario Vellandi

Lori Magno

Kristin Gorski

Krishna De

Kris Hoet

Kofi Annan

Kimberly Dawn Wells

Karl Long

Julie Fleischer

Jordan Behan

John La Grou

Joe Raasch

Jim Kukral

Jessica Hagy

Janet Green

Jamey Shiels

Dr. Graham Hill

Gia Facchini

Geert Desager

Gaurav Mishra

Gary Schoeniger

Gareth Kay

Faris Yakob

Emily Clasper

Ed Cotton

Dustin Jacobsen

Tom Clifford

David Pollinchock

David Koopmans

David Brazeal

David Berkowitz

Carolyn Manning

Craig Wilson

Cord Silverstein

Connie Reece

Colin McKay

Chris Newlan

Chris Corrigan

Cedric Giorgi

Brian Reich

Becky Carroll

Arun Rajagopal

Andy Nulman

Amy Jussel

AJ James

Kim Klaver

Sandy Renshaw

Susan Bird

Ryan Barrett

Troy Worman

 

One Response

  1. […] In my 1 week absence from posting here, I finally finished my chapter for the Conversation Age e-book. I planned to write about “the Age of African conversations” but as I put pen to paper, the focus of the chapter began to shift. I never realized how little 400 words were and how difficult it is to put all your thoughts into one paragraph (I DO tend to be long-winded). I’ve gotten used to writing here on Annansi Chronicles, and writing for my own business materials (mission statements, press releases, business plan etc.), but writing for a book is a lot harder. And to think I was looking to get into authoring soon. So after the 10th edit, late nights collecting my thoughts, and numerous discussions with members of the debate team AKA the Annan family, I’ve settled on penning a piece tentatively titled “From aid to opportunity: Afri-activism transitions into a new consumer market”. If you can’t tell from the title, the chapter is about how, if approached through conversation with Africans, the Africa aid movement can and does help develop the African consumer market. The chapter has been signed, sealed, and delivered to the two publishers, however I would like to hear your opinion on the topic anyway. Can Afri-activism – strategies where a person, group, or company engages Africa through aid and charity – be used to grow the African market? Is it too weighted in negative presumptions to allow market growth? ::::: Tags:Books/Magazines, Business, Charity Politics […]

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