One of the impactful lessons I picked up during my time teaching Entrepreneurial Leadership at ALU in Mauritius, was the constant need to foster a growth mindset. The intentional ability to keep dreaming and the consistent effort in bringing these dreams to life!

You could briefly join me in today’s exercise on exploring your own moment of having a growth mindset. If you may kindly take a quick moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and allow your mind to settle. Then, respond privately or aloud to this prompt:

In the absence of all that is happening and all my responsibilities, and limitless resources, what is the one thing I can dream up and create, today? Something audaciously impactful, and rewardingly personal.

You should write your answer down and refer to it often, creating little achievable tasks to achieve your and let’s reconvene on your progress. I’ll be happy to be your accountability buddy.

My dreams are most often times dipped in culture, expressed in melodies, colored in curated experiences, and only tempered by the need to wake up, eventually. This year, I have the privilege of joining Andani.Africa and the University of Johannesburg to exploring “Futures & Beyond” 2-day summit Where Creatives and 4IR meet on the 16th & 17th of March. I am giddy to share on Culture, Creative Arts, Connectivity & Commerce with further details here.

Andani.Africa x UJ Arts & Culture (FADA)

If the intersection of re-imagine Africa’s contributions to digital and the appreciation of our cultural heritage through the digital arts is your jam as much as mine, then it would be an honor to have you join us!

“Connecting the dots: Culture, Creative Arts, Connectivity & Commerce.” E. A. Gamor

Besides the Unpacking Africa lens, I shall be engaging our audience on the untapped, underexploited economic and innovation opportunity that exists in our creative manufacturing and artisanal spaces; while sharing the relevance of Africa’s poignant contributions that have recently taken space on digital entertainment consumption during the pandemic with Beyonce’s Black is King, Apple’s Prince G iPhone photography campaign, Netflix’s Bridgerton, Afrobeats, and provocative colorful design.

In spite of the challenges we have all had to face this and last year, I have also allowed my dreams to permeate my reality, and have taken on earnest the opportunity to assist our creative manufacturing and hand-made products sector more intentionally with my skills, network, and resources. More on my theory of change with the Eliu Gift Hub here:

My dream and earnest hope are that with this love-offering of curating cultural communities that create bridges in dismantling challenges in commerce from Africa to the world, we are able to unearth even more talents that express the gift of giving.

In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, a trans-generational icon and barrier-shattering-artist, Stevie Wonder matter-of-factly shared “I wanna see this nation smile again; and I want to see it before I move to Ghana because I’m going to do that.” urged on by Oprah he also shared “I don’t want to see my children’s children’s children have to say, ‘Oh please’, like me. ‘Please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.’ What is that?” Link to the full interview for context here.

In my lived experience, my culture has always valued me, it has shielded me, it has protected me especially in spaces that have been contentious and unappreciative. And as I continue to future-cast the world I also want my children to thrive and succeed in; I cannot dream up of a better way than to connect our dots in cultural heritage as we negotiate our place in a more equitable world. Join us.

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Carl Gustav Jung

Be well, be safe, be loved.

Originally published to Unpacking Africa newsletter’s 15,000 + subscribers on March 03, 2021.

Naming ceremonies are on of the more prominent occasions in the Ghanaian community. I tell my friends you can find out a lot about a person just by hearing his name: his family's religion, ethnic group, possibly his day of birth and his family's origin. Eg. Kofi Gabriel Adedevor - infers that buddy was born on Friday, his family gave him a Christian name and his father's family may be traced to the Ewes in the Volta region.

I got to cover a few naming ceremonies over the summer and this is one of them.


The baby's grandfather (from the dad's side) shares a word about the family, and in this case shares that there are only boys in his family; he has a twin and two sons and thus relinquishes baby naming privileges to the other grandfather(mom's side) as the baby's mother has only sisters in her family.


The grandfather, whom the baby is named after, emotionally shares the meaning of his name Oheneba...and how proud he is to have a grandson.


The parents looking on while the family 'elders' share family history, challenges and triumphs.


The head of the Pentecost church, the family's church, calls the child by his name for the first time...Oheneba.


The father, smitten by the emotional bug, also expresses his joy and the pride of having his first born son.



Family together with the bride's parents and sisters, in matching cloth. Usually white is the favored color for naming ceremonies, in this case the family patterns are adorned with baby blue too.



After a long day, close to six hours of congratulations, having guests dine with you and wish you well, Oheneba is finally visibly tired....my sentiments exactly! He's a trooper, I wish him all the best and when giving the chance, look forward to documenting his successes.

It's funny that the day after UF proposes budgets cut, where the 'worse possible scenario' may lead to eliminating funding for the Multicultural and Diversity Affairs, the Plaza of Americas is filled with culture & colors from Cree and Aztek/Mexika indigenous peoples. Keith Sharphead is Cree, originates from Alberta Canada; Juan Salinas (middle dancing) and Joana(Juan's daughter) are Aztek/Mexika from Mexico city and they participated in the 2nd annual cultural awareness demonstration on campus. I was blown away by the dancing and captivated by their clothes. It is more obvious to see the implication of budget cuts on places like the IBC or La Casita, Center for Service & Leadership or programs such as Gatorship, but this demonstration by beautiful people of an amazing culture may not have happened if the MCDA didn't have a hand in sponsoring it. Now that's another thing worth protesting about!