Greetings Glocal Citizens!
Last week, Ghana lost another living legend, the first lady of the 4th Republic, Madam Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings. As we mourn this loss, I can’t help but to take note of how 2025 has been a year punctuated with transitions of many of Ghana’s cultural icons as well as civic leaders--all passionate about not only their crafts, but forward movement, Ghana’s progress. I invited my guest this week to join me in conversation particularly because of how her craft, her passion and her lineage converge in a story that is and will continue to make an impact on arts, culture and economic development in Ghana and beyond.
Ghanaian-American, Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka is an accomplished global branding professional who has been instrumental in driving retail sales via innovative retail marketing and branding campaigns juxtaposing the fashion and music industry.
In 1998, Aretha launched VISIONS Entertainment & Publicity in New York City with a client roster inclusive of: fashion brands, designers, actors, artists, publications and more. She has created and managed numerous cross-promotional marketing and branding campaigns, from concept to execution, for record labels such as: Interscope, DreamWorks, Sony/Columbia, Island/Def Jam, Arista and Atlantic Records.
A decade later in 2008 she founded Global Fusion Productions Inc. promoting African culture, tourism, entertainment and news. Aretha has served as the liaison and connector for local and global businesses looking to target the vast and underserved global African market with events and projects including being a member of the team who brought Ghanaian icon, living legend and Glocal Citizen, James Barnor’s photography for exhibition in Ghana for the first time in 2012.
Aretha also served as coordinator and panelist for the launch of Fashion Forum Africa’s talk series on the business of fashion in Africa. Aretha has written for publications such as: New York based Applause Africa, MIA Magazine and Berlin, Germany based - POP Magazine covering global pop music and culture.
In 2023, Aretha curated Culture Curators: Hip Hop 50 at the National Museum of Ghana, the first of its kind exhibition at the museum that celebrated Ghana’s Diaspora connection thru music in a series of talks, films and one of a kind memorabilia items and commissioned art, along with bringing A/R technology to the museum for the first time in collaboration with The San Diego African-American Museum of Fine Art. 2024 sets the stage to honor and tell the story of Ghana’s unique modern music of Hip Life in celebrating its 30th anniversary so there is much, much more to come for this dynamic diasporan!
Where to find Aretha?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
What’s Aretha cooking?
Kontomire 101
Other topics of interest:
About Okomfo Anokye
Guan People of Ghana
About Apostle Kwadwo Safo Kantanka
About KTA Mobile
About H.E. Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings
Capricorn Astrology
DollHouse Jeans
About the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra
Special Guest: Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week’s encore episode is a timely flashbackconnection with my guest, the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller. Adrian and I went to primary and secondary school in the same school district—Denver Public Schools, and we also both attended Stanford University. I selected this episode to revisit this week because it represents two locals that have been integral to my global self. I’ve just arrived in Colorado from my undergraduate homecoming reunion weekend in California at Stanford University. What a time was had! And more on that later!
Adrian, known as the Soul Food Scholar, is an award-winning food writer, attorney, and certified barbecue judge. His latest book, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste, is the first-ever history of the many chefs of Asian heritage who have prepared meals for the president. Two of his books, his first in 2014 Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time and his 2022 Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue are the James Beard Foundation Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship winners. His second book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction.” He is also featured in the Netflix hit docus-eries, High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America. In addition to his writing and speaking engagements, he is the executive director of the Colorado Councitl of Churches and, as such, is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position.
Along with fascinating anecdotes about foods common on three sides of the Atlantic Ocean, you'll get a sense of how this lawyer by training found himself on a career path in service not only to his dreams, but to the uncovering, elevation and preservation of narratives about culture defining foods and food practices.
Where to find Adrian?
adrianemiller.com
EP135 on Glocal Citizens
Special Guest: Adrian Miller.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week’s conversation dovetails themes that have become very present in my perspectives this past year. Our conversation takes place in one of my locals, which happens to be a new-ish local for my guest - Brooklyn, New York. My guest, Ambassador Martin Kimani is a native of a soon-to-be local for me - Kenya. And we are both decididedly on a #PanAfricaProgress mission. Getting to this point, Ambassabor Kimani has spent his career operating at the intersection of diplomacy, security, and political legitimacy, working across national, regional, and multilateral systems to resolve conflict, build institutions, and negotiate power.
As Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, he served as president of the Security Council and the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS. In his Security Council address of February 2022, delivered on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and viewed by millions, affirmed a core element of his leadership: the ability to bring moral clarity and strategic grounding to moments of international rupture. Earlier, in his career, he directed Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre and served as the President’s Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism advising three presidents through national and regional crises, from emergency evacuations to constitutional brinkmanship.
This year he stepped into a new role as President and CEO of The Africa Center in New York marking a new phase in his work where diplomacy, strategy, and narrative converge. At the same time his Pan-African portfolio alongside his continued engagement with the United Nations positions him as the current President of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
Where to find Martin?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
What’s Martin reading?
A Wreath for Udomo by Peter Abrahams
Other topics of interest:
About Mombasa, Kenya
Nyeri, Kenya
Kiambu, Kenya
About the Kikuyu People
Ambassador Kimani’s Security Council Speech
The First Pan-African Congress in London
The Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester
Who was George Padmore?
Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe
African Nationalism
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
We’re talking about the business of teaching and learning from a design thinking perspective with my guest, fellow Stanford University alum, visionary educational leader and the founder and CEO of Roundtrip Ticket Home, an organization dedicated to helping educators reimagine school systems through design thinking, Kalimah Fergus Ayele. With almost 30 years of experience in education, her journey began as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching Chemistry in East Africa. Her career has spanned five countries, enriching her global perspective on learning, and bringing a deep understanding of urban educational landscapes to her transformative work.
Most recently, she served as the Head of NYC Campus for The Winchendon School where she led an innovative educational oasis in Manhattan, guiding high school students through real-world learning and a unique city-wide field study program designed to connect them with their passions. In this conversation we truly experience the roundtrip journey of a little girl growing up in Brooklyn and St. Croix, building on Pan-African rooting from an early age, who manifested her new and now as a global citizen ready for her next adventure.
Where to find Kalimah?
@roundtrip Ticket Home
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
What’s Kalimah reading?
All the Way to the River by Eizabeth Gilbert
What’s Kalimah watching?
aka Charlie Sheen on Netflix
Orgasm Inc: The Story of One Taste on Netflix
Other topics of Interest:
About St. Croix
Sleepy Hollow, New York
About the United States Peace Corps
About Brooklyn’s African Street Fair and International African Arts Festival
Courageous Conversation + Glenn Singleton
About the American University in Cairo
On Montessori Education
On Friends or Quaker Schools
Special Guest: Kalimah Fergus Ayele.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
In case you missed us last week there’s good reason. My glocal speak for the week was #UNGA80. The streets and sounds of NYC all pointed to the United Nations General Assembly and myriad sideline events. My week was about all thing #PanAfricanProgress and I look forward to sharing stories from the ground in the coming months. One thing is for sure, the giant that is Africa is awake with millions of youth and experienced diasporans ready to keep all of our eyes wide open.
Much of that story is alive and well in my guest this week. Myra Dunoyer Vahighene is a storyteller, creative entrepreneur, and founder of Eleza Masolo, a cultural platform born on YouTube in 2020 and officially launched in 2022 to amplify African voices through storytelling, fashion, and visual arts. She authored Nyuma, the Thirsty Fish, a children's book tackling water justice in Africa, and regularly speaks across the continent — from Abidjan to Nairobi — about youth empowerment, branding, and narrative sovereignty. A Harvard-trained cultural leader, Myra blends Afro fashion, social storytelling, and entrepreneurship to inspire the new generation of African creators across borders.
We meet in Nairobi at the New Cities Summit in June of this year where our common passion for elevating storytelling targeting African children forged our connection. Her most recent literary work Ceux qu’on ne sauvera pas (The Ones We Couldn’t Save), published on August 10, 2025 is a powerful book blending real-life testimonies, allegory, and prophetic narrative to recount thirty years of war and suffering in her homeland, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Through this work is a moving tribute and a lasting call to remember the forgotten victims of ongoing conflict.
Where to find Myra?
Eleza Masolo
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube
Who is Myra listening to?
Slimane
Other topics of interest:
Congo, Kinshasa
What’s happening in Goma?
Kivu and the ongoig conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Great Congo River
About DRC’s many ethnic groups
What is an ISBN
France’s AFNIL platform
Teraanga
Lâche and Faiblesse in English
About The First Pyramid of King Djoser
Special Guest: Myra Dunoyer Vahighene .
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week we continure to reflect on GlocalCitizens@5 and we’re flashing back to our Womens' Herstory series in March 2021. Ghana-based, London-born international award-winning journalist, a playwright, a global public speaker Esther Armah – a self-described ‘global black chick’ – has lived, worked, loved, created across three cities in three countries on three continents – London, New York, and Accra. She is the Executive Director of the Esther Armah Institute of Emotional Justice and she leads a global team in Ghana, Chicago and London. Her most applauded work, which she describes as “more of a purpose than a profession” is centred on the concept of EMOTIONAL JUSTICE.
Pubilshed in 2022, her groundbreaking book Emotional Justice: A Roadmap for Racial Healing argues that the crucial missing piece to racial healing and sustainable equity is emotional justice—a new racial healing language to help us do our emotional work. She continues to build on this apparatus with complementary storytelling expressed via her breadth of creative media expertise. As part of EAIEJ’s third annual September event HEALING HARM | HEEDING HISTORY, themed WELLNESS in the face of WARFARE she’ll be hosting a screening and dialogue for her short film '...goodbye to the EMOTIONAL MAMMY' later this week.
Saturday, 20th September @ 6pm
African Film Society
East Legon, ACCRA
Tickets are SOLD OUT but be sure to follow and sign up for a screening near you!
Where to find Esther?
www.theaiej.com
On [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/estherarmah/
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube
Other topics of interest:
Million Women March
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Steve Beko
Oliver Tambo
Women in the ANC
Truth and Reconciliation Commission South Africa
New Heritage Theatre Group
Danceworks London
www.iamadinkra.com
ICYMI - Nana Amoako-Anin's episodes - Part 1 and Part 2
Special Guest: Esther Armah.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
As the season of academic studies begins in many institutions across parts of the world including New York City where I have spent many years working with charter schools to open their doors to children and families, it’s a flashback moment for my guest and me to the days when she was first granted a charter to begin her social enterpreneurship journey as a school leader and founder.
Dr. Elaine Ruiz- Lopez is the Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the International Leadership Charter High School, a rigorous college prep charter high school in the Bronx, New York where over 95% of its scholars graduate within four years enrolling in the college of their choice. In 2024, she expanded her vision opening a middle school in 2024.
Having worked in the field of education since 1980, over ths course of her career she has held various leadership positions in public schools and universities. In 2017, she was one of the recipients of the Distinguished Women Award (Mujeres Destacadas) presented by El Diario, the largest Spanish daily newspaper organization in the country. In 2022 as one of 100 Bronx Power Women. In 2023 she received the Educator of Excellence Award from the Black Latinx Asian Charter Coalition (BLACC). She is a founding member of the Latino Charter Leaders Roundtable and its current Chair.
Her first book, The Fight for Equity in the Bronx: Changing Lives and Transforming Communities One Scholar at a Time was published last summer and stands as a testament to years of focusing her vision as a servant leader as well as the manifestation of generations of purpose driven living and adaptating to new shores, creating home in other lands.
Where to find Dr. Ruiz Lopez and the International Leadership Charter School?
Saturday (and weekends), September 13 - October 12, 2025 at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition as part of “the art of Nuyorican Soul: A Love Letter from the Diaspora to the Island” exhibition.
International Leadership Charter Schools
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
What’s Elaine reading, watching and listening to?
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
My Grandmother’s Hands by Dr. Resmaa Menakem
Lupin on Netflix
CeCe Winans
Yolanda Adams
Other topics of interest:
About Historical Puerto Rico
On Immigrants and Migrants
The Bronx is Burning and other stories about struggle and settlement in The Bronx
What is the Jones Act?
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on PBS
Find our more about charter schoos via the New York City Charter School Center
Special Guest: Elaine Ruiz Lopez.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week’s interview was recorded while my guest and I were on the same time zone in Western Europe--she in Portugal and the UK for me. My guest, Serene Lewis Lyles spent most of her 30-year career making complex things simple. She was on the forefront of launching technologies that, today, are foundational to our lives including digital video recording (the predecessor to streaming content), the Internet of Things (now known as “Smart tech”), and high-design vape tech (much to her embarrassment).
Fun fact, our paths crossed while we were both based in New York City in the aughts, and we share Colorado and Northern California as places we’ve also called home. After living and working in the States and the UK, she finished her career in San Francisco, as a Senior Director at Meta, leading the content design team behind Facebook and Instagram’s billion-dollar ads business. At Meta, she was also a leader of the employee resource group Black@ Design and founder of the Black@ Content Design Leads group.
Since retiring last year, She has now turned her experience of leading people in solving hard problems into a career coaching people through the challenging process of planning for retirement. Her super powers as a coach are being comfortable talking about money, being excited about other people’s dreams, and creating systems that drive action.
Where to find Serene?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On the Experts & Expats Podcast
What’s Serene reading and listening to?
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Portuguese Lab Podcast
[Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend](lin khttps://teamcoco.com/podcasts/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend)
Other topics of interest:
About Golden Visa Programs
More about international living in Uruguay
San Francisco’s de Young Art Museum
About the Forty Acres and a Mule
Blue Man Group
About Serene’s Mindset Hack @ 56:43
Special Guest: Serene Lewis Lyles.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week on the podcast we’re flashing back to June 2020 when we first met Emmanual Agbeko Gamor while he was based in South Africa attending Wits Business School. Now glocal in his native Ghana and South Africa he continues to evolve on the personal and professional fronts. Widely known as Palmwine DJ, Emmanuel is a trailblazer in Ghana’s music scene, a digital professional, social entrepreneur, and music curator dedicated to preserving and celebrating African musical heritage. With over a decade of experience working remotely and collaboratively with local, regional, and multinational partners, he’s built a career that bridges the digital and physical worlds, creating impactful experiences through music, networking, and community building. As you’ll hear, this phase of E.A.Gamor is on the cusp of big moves in the coming year. #Listenandlearn more!
Where to find Emmanuel?
Palmwine DJ
On Glocal Citizens
What’s Emmanuel playing and listening to?
M3NSA
Kwan Pa Band
Ebo Taylor
Osibisa
Kyekyeku
Oher topics of interest:
What is Palm Wine?
On the roots of Palm-wine Music
Gome Drum
Jùjú Music
About EDM
On FutureCasting
About MTN and MTN Ghana
My iMali app
Special Guest: Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week on the podcast we have Part 1 of a two-part conversation centering a favorite topic of mine - education. The effectivenss of LinkedIn and it’s networkinng superpower facilitated our connection through common connects, Adja Maymouna Sakho and Laureen Adams.
My guest, fellow educator Kwame Sarfo-Mensah holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Temple University. For nine years, he served as a middle school math teacher. Currently, he is the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, a global educational consulting firm that specializes in developing K-12 teachers into identity-affirming educators. Throughout his 17-year career as a classroom teacher, author, and consultant, Kwame has worked in the United States, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Zambia.
Additionally, Kwame has earned numerous accolades for this work, which include being honored as the 2019 National Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. and being recognized as a Top Education Influencer by brightbeam, Inc. in 2021 and 2022.
His newest book, "Learning to Relearn: Supporting Identity in a Culturally Affirming Classroom", recently won the 2025 IPPY Award for Best Education Commentary Book and the 2024 Foreword INDIES Gold Book Award for Best Education Book.
Another dimension of Kwame’s glocal citizenship is the way that he, as a “trailing spouse” has forged forward despite the obvious challenges and has found success and expansion in his craft. I hope your listening will shed additional light on the ways that borderless mindsets are indeed manifesting a new world!
Where to find Kwame?
On Amazon
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Youtube
What’s Kwame reading and watching?
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Untold Fall of Favre
Coach Prime
Other topics of interest:
About Mampong, Ghana
Where is Nsima, Ghana
About the Akwamu Empire
Lusaka, Zambia
A bit about Nyanja and other Zambian languages
Education past and present in Sierra Leone
Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Special Guest: Kwame Sarfo-Mensah.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week on the podcast we have Part 1 of a two-part conversation centering a favorite topic of mine - education. The effectivenss of LinkedIn and it’s networkinng superpower facilitated our connection through common connects, Adja Maymouna Sakho and Laureen Adams.
My guest, fellow educator Kwame Sarfo-Mensah holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Temple University. For nine years, he served as a middle school math teacher. Currently, he is the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, a global educational consulting firm that specializes in developing K-12 teachers into identity-affirming educators. Throughout his 17-year career as a classroom teacher, author, and consultant, Kwame has worked in the United States, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Zambia.
Additionally, Kwame has earned numerous accolades for this work, which include being honored as the 2019 National Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. and being recognized as a Top Education Influencer by brightbeam, Inc. in 2021 and 2022.
His newest book, "Learning to Relearn: Supporting Identity in a Culturally Affirming Classroom", recently won the 2025 IPPY Award for Best Education Commentary Book and the 2024 Foreword INDIES Gold Book Award for Best Education Book.
Another dimension of Kwame’s glocal citizenship is the way that he, as a “trailing spouse” has forged forward despite the obvious challenges and has found success and expansion in his craft. I hope your listening will shed additional light on the ways that borderless mindsets are indeed manifesting a new world!
Where to find Kwame?
On Amazon
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Youtube
What’s Kwame reading and watching?
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Untold Fall of Favre
Coach Prime
Other topics of interest:
About Mampong, Ghana
Where is Nsima, Ghana
About the Akwamu Empire
Lusaka, Zambia
A bit about Nyanja and other Zambian languages
Education past and present in Sierra Leone
Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Special Guest: Kwame Sarfo-Mensah.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
The spirit of summers past visits with us this week; it’s another Glocal Citizens @5flashback forward episode. In 2023, my guest this week, Hawa Kombian joined us for a two part conversation while she was based in her adopted home country, Canada. Today she's back in Ghana spreading new wings as a leadership strategist, resilience coach, and organizational advisor dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations sustain their impact without sacrificing their people.
With 14+ years of experience in social impact leadership, public speaking, and organizational change, she has worked with leaders across North America, Africa, and Europe to prevent burnout, build resilient teams, and create lasting cultural shifts at both the individual and organizational levels.
And that’s where we’re picking up this week’s conversation. As a sought-after speaker and facilitator, she integrates mental resilience, emotional intelligence, and strategic leadership to help leaders navigate high-pressure environments without falling into unproductive burnout loops.
Where to find Hawa?
Hawa Kombian Consulting
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Soundcloud
What’s Hawa reading?
Dead Money by Jakob Kerr
Other topics of interest:
Gambaga, Ghana
About Najong #1
“Yaya hanya” and other beginning Hausa
P4 Pilates, Accra
Kukun Open Mic in Accra
Special Guest: Hawa Kombian.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week on the podcast we have another gift from the Glocal Citizens community. In this two part conversation we meet Dr. Osei Alleyne. A joint PhD in Anthropology and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and former inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn, Dr. Osei also holds an MA in Communications from Temple University. A still active internationally touring professional Canadian Hip hop artist and Spoken word poet of Trinidad & Tobago extract, his field research employs a multi-modal ethnography of Reggae, Rastafari, Afrobeat and Hip-hop performance communities and related social justice movements across the African diaspora, with an emphasis on the black Atlantic nexus between Jamaica and Ghana. We recently met while he was in Ghana working on his forthcoming book, Dancehall Diaspora: Rastafari and Rudeness in the African Postcolony, thanks to consumate connector, Muhammida el Muhajir. As Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Production at Temple University, his writing repertoire spans African diasporic art and philosophy movements such as afrofuturism, afropolitanism and afropessimism. In this conversation, Dr. Osei offers an insightful glimpse into the spaces he has navigated in honing this and his other crafts.
Where to find Osei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube
What’s Osei watching?
First Peoples Documentary
Other topics of interest:
About Trinidad and Tobago
History about Carnivals in the Black Diaspora
The Book of African Names
On Africana Studies
About Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden
About The Black Star Line,
Garveyism, and The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
About Ethiopianism
Alex Haley’s Roots
Association of Black Anthropologists
Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist and Anthropologist
About Cheik Anta Diop
About what was to be Akon City
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Debate 1967
About Cultural Theorist Stuart Hall
About Author and Scholar, Paul Gilroy
Martin Bernal and Black Athena
Reggie Rockston and HipLife
About Shatta Wale
What is the Theory of Mind
Black Holes and the Macro Universe
Special Guest: Osei Alleyne.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week on the podcast we have another gift from the Glocal Citizens community. In this two part conversation we meet Dr. Osei Alleyne. A joint PhD in Anthropology and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and former inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn, Dr. Osei also holds an MA in Communications from Temple University. A still active internationally touring professional Canadian Hip hop artist and Spoken word poet of Trinidad & Tobago extract, his field research employs a multi-modal ethnography of Reggae, Rastafari, Afrobeat and Hip-hop performance communities and related social justice movements across the African diaspora, with an emphasis on the black Atlantic nexus between Jamaica and Ghana. We recently met while he was in Ghana working on his forthcoming book, Dancehall Diaspora: Rastafari and Rudeness in the African Postcolony, thanks to consumate connector, Muhammida el Muhajir. As Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Production at Temple University, his writing repertoire spans African diasporic art and philosophy movements such as afrofuturism, afropolitanism and afropessimism. In this conversation, Dr. Osei offers an insightful glimpse into the spaces he has navigated in honing this and his other crafts.
Where to find Osei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube
What’s Osei watching?
First Peoples Documentary
Other topics of interest:
About Trinidad and Tobago
History about Carnivals in the Black Diaspora
The Book of African Names
On Africana Studies
About Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden
About The Black Star Line
Garveyism, The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
About Ethiopianism
Alex Haley’s Roots
Association of Black Anthropologists
Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist and Anthropologist
About Cheik Anta Diop
About what was to be Akon City
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Debate 1967
About Cultural Theorist Stuart Hall
About Author and Scholar, Paul Gilroy
Martin Bernal and Black Athena
Reggie Rockston and HipLife
About Shatta Wale
What is the Theory of Mind
Black Holes and the Macro Universe
Special Guest: Osei Alleyne.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week’s guest, Tina Mbachu Obodozie first joined me in conversation in 2021, thanks fo the #BWiD Connect Whatsapp group. Since our first chat, she has shifted to a bi-continental lifestyle, based mostly in Nigeria as the new Exectuive Director of the Innovate Africa Foundation, while also managing her business activities in Canada. As a business and sustainable development expert specializing in business design, social impact assessment, and strategy development, her cross-sector career includes technology, natural resources, and the creative economy, where she has led teams, formed partnerships, and built development programs and incubators supporting market-creating innovations. Tina has worked with organizations like DMZ-a Toronto-based tech incubator and global startup ecosystem as well as Plan Canada, securing millions in funding and driving social and economic change. A recognized thought leader and ecosystem builder, she was named The Peak Emerging Leader 2024 in the Entrepreneurship category.
Where to find Tina?
@catalyst Venture
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
What’s Tina reading?
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
Other topics of interest:
About World Product Day
What is Product Development all about?
More about Innovate Africa Foundation founder, Christian Idiodi
What is a susu?
Republic Day Greetings Glocal Citizens!
This week’s guest is another Glocal Citizens connection. In spring 2024, Amma Gyampo reached out to me me about connecting me with a like mind in education. And that was the beginning of ongoing conversations with Laureen “Laury” Adams. With over 20 years of experience spanning both international and U.S. contexts as a classroom teacher, school leader, coach, designer, and professor, Dr. Laury possesses a unique skill set. This includes shaping innovative curricula, effectively supporting learning communities of all sizes, and coaching leaders to drive impactful change. Her design background informs her expertise in project-based learning approaches, performance assessment, and liberatory praxis. She collaborates with schools and education organizations to design critical, responsive, and loving curricula, assessments, and professional learning opportunities. Laureen is the founder and Executive Director of the Tutu Institute of Education for Liberation. As well as Senior Director of Professinal Learning at ASCD Ghana.
Among her other roles on boards and consulting she is a research Fellow and Adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University She recently co-authored This Teachable Moment: Engaging Our Kids in the Joy of Learning to support parents and caregivers with providing project-based learning experiences at home. Download your free copy and #listenandlearn more about Laury’s work in session at SXSW EDU 2025.
Today, July 1st, Ghana marks its 65th Republic Day. Our conversation speaks to many of the themes we continue to work to realize as the country sheds its colonial character as a sovereign, free republic with Ghanaians leading and steering our social and economic destiny.
Where to find Laury?
https://www.liberatorylove.com/
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
What’s Laury reading?
One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad)
Finding Your Leadership Soul by Carlos R. Moreno
What’s Laury watching?
Forever, a new series
Other topics of interest:
About Long Beach, California
NYC Teaching Fellows Program
Envsion Academy Charter School
Teach for America
Sponsors for Educational Opportunities
'Love” in Twi
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
I met this week's guest last month as a fellow AfroTalks 2025 speaker. Our collective charge for the event was to present our ideas about the "how" of Pan-African progress from mindset, to skills development to migration policy and the future of work. While I shared insights from the future of work salon series, our guest this week, David Hutchful participated on a panel discussing skills development. Born in Ghana, David is a passionate technologist, entrepreneur, educator, and design thinking expert dedicated to building tech-driven solutions in emerging markets. With over 25 years of experience in software development, he has led teams to create award-winning innovative platforms that drive business and social impact in Ghana and abroad.
As Co-Founder and CTO of Yemaachi Biotech (YC21), he is working to build the most diverse genomic database to advance precision oncology. Previously, he co-founded Bloom Impact, led technology innovation at Grameen Foundation, and worked at Microsoft Research. His expertise spans Fintech, Health tech, and Biotech, with a focus on leveraging technology for meaningful change--all topics we touch on in our conversation.
Where to find David?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube
What’s David watching?
Dept. Q on Netflix
What’s David riding and a few motorcycle clubs in Accra:
Yamaha XSR900
Ultimate Riders MC
Hotwheels Ghana MC
Biker Girls GH
Other topics of interest:
Apam, Ghana
Adukrom, Ghana
About Abelempke, Accra
What is the Africa Rising Movement about?
About Ahaspora
Why did nurses and midwives in Ghana go on strike?
Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) in Ghana
About Kasapreko
About WACCBIP - West African Centre for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens
GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation
+233 Jazz Bar and Grill
Empire of AI by Karen Hao
Special Guest: David Hutchful.
Greetings from East Africa Glocal Citizens!
Well, kind of…this conversation was recorded last weekend from Nairobi on the eve of Father’s Day and a day after the opening of my guest, Michael Soi’s current joint exhibition, The Print Press an exhibit of woodcut prints by various Nairobi based artist at the Alliance Francaise Nairobi 13th June to the 29th of June. I met Michael in his studio at The Go Down Art Centre when I first visited Nairobi in February and after an inspired conversation I wanted to be sure to share his story here. As you’ll hear, he has been working in Nairobi since 1995 after completion of his fine art and art history studies. His distinctive work is inspired by contemporary life in Nairobi providing a photographic diary of Nairobi and is a satirical commentary of social, economic and political trends. His work explores relationships – intergenerational, interracial or generally what he calls the economics of love, commercial sex work and popular culture within the context of globalization & consumerism. A wonderful aspect of Michael’s visual storytelling craft is that he’s figured out the hacks that make his art accessible on many levels from the curious observer to the serious collector. Listen and learn more!
Where to find Michael?
On Artsy
On Instagram
On Facebook
What’s Michael watching?
About Planetary Parades or Syzygy
Other topics of interest:
About Machakos, Kenya
About Ancent Soi and the 1972 Munich Olympics
About the Kuona Trust Residencies
National Museums of Kenya
About [Kenya’s second President Daniel arap Moi
Special Guest: Michael Soi.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
We’re picking up more momentum toward African progress sharing the stories of dynamic diasporans making impact in the reparatory justice space. On the eve of Africa Day, I attended the premier screening of Omitted, a short film exploring reparatory justice and the legacies of colonialism by Lavinya Stennett, founder of The Black Curriculum. Raised in the UK with Jamaican roots, she founded The Black Curriculum in 2019 at age 22 shortly after finishing her studies at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) which included a study abroad program in New Zealand. Her learning and experience with indigenous communities in New Zealand joined with her activism as a student at SOAS are the framework for the craft of truthtelling that is at the core of The Black Curriculum.
Believing in the power of education, social impact and youth social entrepreneurship, her work has been recognised globally from Vogue and GQ to the historic Freedom of the City of London Award in 2024. She also has written on social and cultural themes throughout the African diaspora for outlets including the Guardian, Black Ballad, Quartz Africa.
Expanding her entrpreneurship journey, in 2024 Lavinya co-founded the Racial Impact Collective, an initiative supporting social entrepreneurs and seeking equity in the grant making world. The future is brighter with knowing that there is a generation fo social innovators with creative talents like Lavinya committed to justice for marginalized peoples.
Where to find Lavinya?
https://www.lavinyastennett.co.uk
TheBlackCurriculum.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube
What’s Lavinaya reading?
Material World by Ed Conway
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi
Other topics of interest:
Portland and Saint Thomas, Jamaica
Barbados and the Welcome Stamp Visa - Note: the capital is Bridgetown, not Christ Church
The SOAS Walter Rodney Prize
Dream New Scholarship
Univrsity of Waikato
About the Treaty of Waitangi and the latest on the [protest haka in the New Zealand’s Parliament seen around the globe](linkhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/5/new-zealand-parliament-suspends-maori-mps-who-performed-protest-haka)
About Omitted production partner, Transmission
About Peace First
Special Guest: Lavinya Stennett.
Greetings Glocal Citizens!
As we hit the halfway mark on 2025 our treat this week is a thought-provoking conversation with Wana Udobang, a multifaceted writer, poet, performer, curator, and storyteller based in Lagos, Nigeria. I met Wana last year during the Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Accra where she faciliated her own unique writing workshop - “Comfort Food” a storytelling and poetry workshop that uses food as a conduit to explore memories, history, joy, and healing which was born out of her culinary quality time during the pandemic. In this lively conversation we cover Wana's extensive body of work which encompasses her journey of becoming a creative professional in Nigeria, her spoken word albums and how she has honed her craft building a framework for entrepreneurship using various storytelling platforms.
Where to find Wana?
wanaudobang.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube
What’s Wana reading?
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun](https://sarahladipomanyika.com/work/like-a-mule-bringing-ice-cream-to-the-sun-book.html) by Sarah Lipado Manyika
All Fours by Miranda July
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
What’s Wana watching?
Conclave
The Substance
What’s Wana listening to?
Florence and the Machine
Other topics of interest:
About the Ibibio people of Nigeria
Def Poetry Jam
About Nnedi Okorafor and Akata Warrior as seen in the new Forever series on Netflix
Special Guest: Wana Udobang.
