West African music coming to SeaSide Folk

In its second and last concert of 2008, SeaSide Folk presents world music from Africa.

SeaSide brings Oumou Soumaré, the “Gazelle of the Mali Desert,” to the Broad Cove community hall August 17.

Oumou Soumaré is from Gao, in Mali, West Africa – a modern African city that sits at the crossroads of the Sahara Desert, the Niger River and the greener, fertile, southern part of the large, landlocked country.

She comes from a musical family in Mali, and is popular in her own right there. She specializes in the music and rhythms of Africa, taking her songs from the traditions of everyday living in her native country, and using such universal themes as peace, women’s conditions and social issues.

The music is at times lively and danceable, with a distinctive Afro beat, and at times thoughtful.

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Interview: The father of the internet in Africa

The internet is as important to Africa’s future as food and water. So says “the father of the internet in Africa”, Ghanaian entrepreneur and computer scientist Nii Quaynor. He is evangelical about the power of computer literacy to bring about social and economic transformation, and his work won him the Internet Society’s prestigious Postel award. He talked to Curtis Abraham about his hopes for African “techno-liberation”

You’ve said that affordable computing in Africa is as important as basic necessities like food and clean water. That’s a controversial viewpoint.

Read more ($): Interview: The father of the internet in Africa

Ebook Library and Mallory International Partner to Bring Ebooks to Africa – Companies Collaborate to Overcome Challenges of Digital Delivery to the Region

BRISTOL, England, Aug 05, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — EBL and Mallory International are delighted to announce a joint initiative to promote and develop the sale and access of ebooks into libraries in Africa. Innovative pricing and delivery models, appropriate to the region, are being developed jointly, to give institutions effective access to the latest content and ebook technology.
Access to electronic resources can be difficult in Africa where things most of us take for granted, such internet access and state-of-the-art computer hardware, are not consistently available. Mallory has been a leading supplier of print content to the African continent for nearly 25 years. While they are well aware of the obstacles to delivering content electronically, Mallory also believe that libraries in the region are ready to invest in making these technologies work, and that African institutions will benefit greatly from the more immediate and enhanced access that ebooks provide. Julian Hardinge, Chairman of Mallory International, said: “We are delighted to find a partner who is not only a leader in delivering e-books to libraries, but also has been prepared to work with us to meet the particular needs of customers in less developed countries.”

Read more: Ebook Library and Mallory International Partner to Bring Ebooks to Africa – Companies Collaborate to Overcome Challenges of Digital Delivery to the Region