Airtel, Trace & Akon on the hunt for Africa's music talent

By Elisha Kamau

Airtel, Trace and Akon on hunt for Africa's music talent

Airtel and Trace TV have today unveiled a unique mobile song competition dubbed “Airtel Trace Music Stars”. This becomes the first song contest of its kind that will provide an opportunity for Kenyan youth to compete with others across Africa by simply calling in a short code number.

The competition will allow participants an option to rehearse on a phone karaoke that scores the performance. Without having to stand in big long queues, all that participants have to do is Call, Sing and Win a chance to become the next big music star in Kenya and possibly across Africa and the world.   

With millions of viewers and the accolade of the Sunday Times Generation Next award for “coolest music channel”, TRACE Urban is the ideal partner for Airtel to not only reach to the youth market, but also create a platform for aspiring Kenyan singers to showcase their talent.  

Speaking at the launch event held at Zen Garden Nairobi, Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi said, “Airtel is passionate about creating credible platforms that celebrate and reward young, talented people. Kenya has got talent and we are pleased to be able to showcase the wealth of talent that exists within our country. It was a fitting choice for us to partner with Trace Music Star to empower, reward and celebrate the youth.”

The partnership kicked off on 25^th September with the launch of the Airtel Trace Music Star competition which will run until 4^th January 2015. The competition is only open to Airtel subscribers. Numbers ported to Airtel will also be eligible for entry.

The 6 best entries from Kenya will be selected by a panel of judges and will be announced on 4^th January 2015. The finalists will be promoted on TRACE urban and the Web. The public will vote for their favourite entry through a short code 33733 and the winner will be announced at a National Grand Finale event on 4^th January 2015. The Kenyan representative will then move on to the Pan African stage to compete with other African representatives for the ultimate prize.

“I am pleased to join Trace to develop innovative ways in which to identify and nurture dynamic music talent throughout the continent. The intersection between technology and artist development is elevated by the presence of this ground-breaking music competition concept,” stated Akon.

The grand finale will be held in March 2015. The partnership with TRACE Music Star will last three years.

Other prizes up for grabs in the competition include – cash prizes and mobile phones. 

The overall winner will walk away with a prize of 30 000 Euros in cash, a recording deal with Universal music, mentorship by AKON and a 5 star trip to New York City.

Parenting back then and now

I cannot help but to note the difference between bringing up children today and when we ourselves (over 30 years old) were kids. It’s also fascinating to listen to our parents’ generation tell us how it was when they were nurturing us back then.

For starters, there weren’t a variety of baby bath products – no bubbly baths and bath gels and scented this and that. We had panga soap, and to top off the bath experience – copious amounts of Vaseline applied liberally to make the skin shine like a ripe tomato (though I admit I do the Vaseline part to my kids).

Nappies were used more than diapers that were a luxury to many. And maids were dedicated to washing those nappies unlike today where they’ll quit on discovering that they have to wash off baby poop daily. Thank goodness for super absorbent diapers like Pampers which have made baby care so much easier!  And still on the subject of maids, we had one – not two or three to cater for two or three kids – just one. And they were fired once we were old enough to cook and clean!

Hmm. School. My baby boy PD started at 2 years 10 months. 5 months later he speaks to us in French and operates an Ipad better than me. I started nursery at 4 years, other kids at 5 years and in shags ‘What’s a nursery?” But we had more fun in terms of games, perhaps because TV started at 5pm with a few minutes of Choppy / He Man / Sheera / Saber Rider… good cartoons that didn’t have loads of blood, gore and witchcraft like they do today. Telly was after an active outdoor session of Kati / shake / tapo / mabuyu / hopscotch or simply running around the estate aimlessly chasing one other. 

We would walk in and out of each other’s houses, eating House of Manji biscuits and for ‘dessert’ we’d suck the sweet nectar out of honeysuckle flowers growing on fences.

There were no mobile phones. No distraction from the internet and social media. I don’t think we had gone past using DOS on computers yet (actually did computers exist in Kenya?). There was wholesome entertainment with little immorality.

Sometimes I wonder how my mum coped without some of the fancy gadgets that we have now. For example,  instead of baby carriers and fancy prams it was the shuka. Instead of breast pumps it was manual expression by hand, even at work! Knitting was a norm and also stitching the kids’ matching bed sheets and pillow cases that I look at with great pride today... our mums were and still are super hardworking women!

Children’s safety concerns were less - neighbors knew each other long before ‘Nyumba Kumi’ initiative, so it was easy to trace your kids’ whereabouts. Cases of kidnappings were infrequent, so it wasn’t terrifying to let your kid walk to the bus stop alone and jump into a bus or matatu.

Toys were simple. My sister even made her own doll in school! Today, there are kiddy make up sets, Ben 10 this and Hannah Montana that. It seems this generation’s creative side is being suppressed by technology on which you can draw without feeling the waxiness of a crayon on your fingertips, or the texture of plasticine when moulding shapes, or the dusty rubber of a used tyre as you roll it around. There’s too much sitting around now. 

A recent newspaper article stated that “Kids are around 15 percent less fit in cardiovascular terms than their parents were 30 years ago. If a young person is generally unfit now, then they are more likely to develop conditions like heart disease later in life”.

The list is endless. I have definitely realized that, childhood is the most precious, care-free and innocent stage of a person’s life. So since ours has passed, why don’t we make our children’s / students’ childhood era something to remember with pride, joy and nostalgia 20 years from now? Their lives truly are, literally, in our hands.

The author, Janet Kanini is Pampers Brand Ambassador

Training on global sustainability reporting to be offered locally

By Ceciliah Kimuyu

Organizations are set to benefit from affordable training on global sustainability reporting locally instead of traveling abroad, following the launch of a consortium that will offer such trainings in Sub-Saharan Africa.   

The consortium is made up of: Strathmore Business School, MHC International Limited, a research and advisory company on CSR, employment and development, and Apex Porter Novelli, public relations agency. The consortium is the first to be licensed and certified to offer this training in Sub-Saharan Africa by Amsterdam-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

  

Strathmore Business School representative, Mr. Edward Mungai says that the consortium will avail affordable training for the organizations and reverse the current situation where many of them sponsor their staff for overseas training. 

“With training now being available in the region, organizations no longer have to send their teams to Europe for training,” said Mungai.  

The first training is set to take place between October 1^st and 2^nd 2014 at Strathmore Business School and will be conducted by Enrique Torres, who until recently has been the head of training of GRI in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

GRI pioneered and developed a comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework that is used globally. Locally, Safaricom is one of organisations that have embraced GRI reporting guidelines, and issued its first sustainability report in 2012/2013 financial year.  

“Sustainability reporting helps organizations report not only about their financial spending, but also environmental and social impact of their work to both employees and the community,” Dr. Michael Hopkins, CEO, MHC International Limited. 

Sustainability reporting helps organizations to set goals, measure performance, and manage change in order to make their operations more sustainable. A sustainability report conveys disclosures on an organization’s positive and negative impacts on the environment, society and the economy. In doing so, sustainability reporting makes abstract issues tangible and concrete, thereby assisting in understanding and managing the effects of sustainability developments on the organization’s activities and strategy. 

The consortium has been licensed to train organizations in 18 African countries among them Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, Mauritius, Ghana, Senegal, Namibia and Nigeria.