If you were having coffee with I would welcome you to my socially distanced corner of the internet and greet you in the Zulu language: Sawubona which literally translates to I see you. I think it’s a simple yet profound greeting that encompasses our existence that we exist and someone can see us, all of us, our joy, our pain, triumphs and struggles and we matter.
Sawubona
I was thinking about this last night when I tuned into an award ceremony I had all but forgotten about. See I was nominated for the MIPAD 100 Most Influential People of African Descent 2021 while I didn’t make it to the finalists it was inspiring being among some of the notable dignitaries present from Vice Presidents to people from Warner, CNN, and even one of the fastest women on earth Elaine Thompson-Herah.
I was touched by the way the spirits of the awards is captured in the ceremony which is not referred to as awards but rather RECOGNITION CEREMONY to say that we see the work you are doing and appreciate you. While I was never expecting to make the finalists I did feel a twinge of envy that I also want to be seen and recognised, so yeah if you see me just let me know you see me ^_^.
We will be having our second African Blogging Awards this December and the nomination phase is in progress. Actually, nominations should have closed last night but the Afrobloggers site received more traffic than it could handle that for a while it was offline, the problem got rectified but for the inconvenience that happened the nomination phase has been extended till the 5th of October. So if you are reading this before then and you have African Bloggers you wish to nominate go to http://www.Afrobloggers.org.zw
Oh, yeah and you cant nominate me because well, I’m part of the Afrobloggers Team. I was pleasantly surprised to find had made the news, I haven’t bought a newspaper in like ages but I did buy a copy of this one just so I could say hey that is us, it’s a certain kinda of being seen too.
If you are having coffee with me I would tell you that the awards serve to celebrate creativity, dedication and responsible storytelling as a way of bringing recognition to the digital storytellers who are doing amazing things using online spaces. Blogging has come a long from when it was simply online journals now its evolved into so much more.
Afrobloggers got invited onto Dutch’s show Tech Thursdays on Heart and Soul TV to talk about content creator networks and of course the upcoming awards.
Anyhow I went to the show alongside fellow blogger Scotch Royalty. It was a fun experience I am more used to being behind the screen typing away and never quite the subject of focus. You can check out the interview on the Heart and Soul FaceBook Page ^_^
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell after almost a year of not shaving my beard I finally decided; why not? My going excuse was usually because lockdown …I couldn’t get to a barber and that I had lost my hair clippers. I bought a new pair of clippers and trimmed away to look respectable for TV you know ^_^
And speaking of recognition but of another kind, a restaurant chain has been caught in a media storm after they donated a fully equipped restaurant to the first lady’s Agel Of Hope Foundation where less privileged girls can be employed . The president opened the already open restaurant because well can never miss an opportunity to have an official opening.
Some people were calling for people to boycott the restaurant chain because it was perceived to be aligning itself with regime while others were celebrating that the restaurant had joined the ruling side, depending on which side of the political divide one views the world. Politics appears to be very polarized and people will lynch you for being on a side that is not. As for me, I cant boycott a place I have never been to.
There is no way a business can flourish in Zimbabwe without keeping the ruling party on its good side, donations, campaign funds and generally not showing overt support to opposition political parties, it just is what it is.
It’s like when you wake up and find the Kampala Metro Police Twitter Account is following you on Twitter you be like wow, did they like my Tweets so much? Am I a person of interest, are they watching me? They followed my account after following the President of Uganda’s account I am totally counting that as a recognition of sorts and now where is my verification badge ^_^
Hello October new month and all, what’s been happening in your corner of the world? Can you see me?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?