West African Dance Showcase by Tiyumba

Tiyumba Dance Group

Dear Friends:

I hope you will be able to come and experience West African Dance as it is so energetically performed by the Tiyumba Dance Group. It will be a lot of fun and it is an opportunity for you to see what Tiyumba is all about and also get down and dance.

Red 10 Team takes on HIV/AIDS

RED10 AFFAIR

RED 10 @ MN AIDS WALK

Team Red10 would like to encourage you to join the Minnesota Aids Walk scheduled for Sunday May 17th 2009.

A Red10 Affair party, will be held on Saturday May 16th 2009 at Trocaderos in downtown Minneapolis. AIM and FunkHouse Entertainment are donating ALL the profits from the event to the MN AIDS Project. DJ’s from all corners of the continent will be featured.

Please also join the Red10 team by bringing awareness to the community, by registering for the walk through the following link: http://community.mnaidsproject.org/TEAMRED10

If you are unable to walk, you are invited to support the team to reach their goals by clicking on the following link: http://community.mnaidsproject.org/TEAMRED10 then click on ‘Support Me’, and make a donation to the team captain (WANGECHI). All proceeds will go towards the Minnesota AIDS project.

A catered Barbecue event will be held on Sunday after the Minnesota AIDS walk at the Minnehaha Park, from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. to raise additional funds towards the Minnesota AIDS project. Tuma’s Catering will be providing food for sale. SolJams and Touch entertainment will be providing the music entertainment.

African Health Action Corporation [AHA] will be available at the Minnehaha Park to privately test individuals who want to know their HIV status.

Red10 team is also looking for volunteers to help during and after the walk. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Please show your support and work with the Red10 team to bring HIV/AIDS awareness to the community.  Accents Telecom will give $10.00 credit to anyone who walks and gets screened for HIV. Their rates are very competetive.

For more information about the Red10 team & fundraising events, please visit the following websites:

http://community.mnaidsproject.org/Page.aspx?pid=317

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=78560478063

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=78354726453

TEAM RED 10 will be representing the African Community at the 2009 MN AIDS WALK and we hope that you will participate in this worthy cause, our future.

Under Scrutiny

by Eva

I am fond of the Somali mall and all the services they offer. I am also proud of those that have established business that provide services sorely lacking in the Minneapolis area.

I am also concerned about the scrutiny some of these businesses seem to garner in the investigations conducted by the FBI. What do you think about the raids that have been taking place recently? One such raid on money transfer businesses was reported by Kare 11.  The  report stated,

Federal agents searched three money-transfer businesses in Minneapolis on Wednesday, carrying away boxes of documents and copying computer hard drives in a quest for details of financial transactions between the U.S. and several African nations.

Agents searched Mustaqbal Express, also known as North American Money Transfer Inc.; Quran Express; and Aaran Financial.

“They were asking how long have you had the office, how long have you been working here, how many employees do you have,” said Abdirahman Omar, General Manager at Mustaqbal Express.

FBI spokesman E.K. Wilson confirmed the searches but wouldn’t elaborate on the reason.

To read the full length article click here.

Do you think  these raids are legitimate? Do you know of other raids on other African owned business that went unreported? Please share that information. After all you are the windows to the communities that we live in.

AIM @ Work

For those of you that attended the last AIM Happy Hour at Picosa, it was a success due to your participation and support. We discussed the upcoming projects for the spring and summer and met a lot of beautiful new Africans. Read Vol. 5, Issue II of the AIM Newsletter to help recap the items presented at Picosa.

For April, AIM will forgo the Happy Hour to support the Hope for the Child fundraiser that will be taking place this Friday, April 3. In celebration of spring and the possibilities it represents, the following fun events are on the AIM calendar so far:
April Events
Hope for the Child Fundraiser
Date: Friday, April 3, 2009
Entrance: $5.00
Address: 414 3rd Ave N
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Open bar from 8-10
To donate or learn more about Hope for the Child, visit www.HopefortheChild.org

What is an Original African Man?

by Eva

I recently learned that late last year, FELA! was on Broadway. It is a shame that I did not learn about the show while it was still on Broadway. That would have been a musical I would have loved to see. Hopefully the show’s producers will decide to take the musical on tour, broadcast the musical on TV and or sell it on DVD. Nevertheless, I still think that there is a lot to be learned from the actors that participated in this innovative project by watching the videos that are posted on the show’s site.

FELA! is a “lyrical” depiction of Fela Kuti. The Broadway musical, directed by Bill T. Jones, tries to highlight Fela’s “struggle for authenticity” and seeks, among other things,  to answer the question, “What is an Original African Man?” Mr. Jones goes on to define his version of an Original African Man (watch the attached video to see what his answer to this question is). Despite his answer, Mr. Jones seems to think that the question should be posed to anthropologists, but considering I like getting my answers straight from the source, I will do better, by posing the question to my fellow MinneAfricans.

So, dear MinneAfricans, “What is an Original African Man?” Do you agree or disagree with Mr. Jones’ definition?

Africa, My Valentine

by Eva

Valentine’s sucks! I should take that back but I won’t. I could also sit here and bemoan my dislike for Valentine’s and focus solely on the fact that it is a holiday created to make us spend money, wear red outfits and/or buy flowers, cards, candy or jewelry and does push our limits further when we have to go as far as having to give up going to our favorite restaurants because it is usually so hard to get reservations.

What is your speed?

by Eva

There is a new map being put together, that shows Minnesota’s broadband, high-speed Internet. The Map, once completed, will show where Internet service is poor or speeds are slow. I love this because you get to test your connection speed and compare your results to what your Internet Service Provider is selling you. Finally, I’ll be able to verify whether I am getting my money’s worth when it comes to Internet Service. That’s a start.

Go to MPR to read more about this or listen to the full story. Otherwise, to test your Internet speed, go to Connect Minnesota.

Although broadband Internet service here in Minnesota and in other states is becoming cheaper and more available, it is not as readily available in Africa. However, our hope is that this will rapidly change, and enhance the already ongoing efforts to reduce poverty, create jobs and improve the means of communications between African countries and their connection with the rest of the world.

In line with these hopes, NEPAD (The New Partnership for Africa’s Development) has launched what it calls a

“Broadband Infrastructure Network, [which] will connect east African countries to a communications network stretching from South Africa to Rwanda. A second broadband network will connect Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Namibia and Madagascar to an undersea cable running along East Africa.”

To read the entire article click here.

Zumba away those winter blues!

 

 

Ditch the workout and Join the party!

by Eva

The cold outside is so numbing it defies description, and it takes all the self control I have to not break down and cry…(sigh). Like a lot of you, I suffer from the blues every winter and I have to consciously stay busy and find different ways to keep myself entertained. One of the ways through which I keep myself from feeling blue is by dancing every chance I get. I dance while cooking, driving to and from work and even in the grocery store when I think no one is looking.

Relevant Conversation to “Is Africa or Africans Cursed?”

by Eva

While reading the Daily Nation I came across an opinion piece by Koigi Wamwere which I believe is relevant to the conversation started by Ibe, “Is Africa or Africans Cursed?“

Here is an excerpt of what Mr. Wamwere opines:

To succeed however, Kenyans must jump over certain hurdles. Although we have weakened it considerably, dictatorship is not dead, and no people can develop if they are oppressed by tyranny. To develop, we must be completely free.

To develop, our dream must come from within, not without. A dream dreamt for us like Vision 2030 will not take us to the First World because it comes to us dead and cold and sparks no fire and passion in us for action. To take us there, we must embrace the dream with the same passion we desired uhuru (freedom).

Do you agree or disagree with the solutions proposed here?

GOOD… a good idea

by Eva

Work was slow today. I’m sure I could have found something productive to do but instead, I decided to daydream and let my fingers do the walking. After searching for a while through the same ol’ pile of junk, I stumbled upon something that was indeed different and that is beneficial. See, in these difficult times, it seems sometimes that there is a shortage of good ideas but on this site, it seemed that this was where brilliant opinions congregated.