True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance. - Alexander Pope

Africell

OPEN MIC FESTIVAL 2011 - A STEP INTO THE FUTURE

By Xmyls Francis Abdul Malik in Essays, Gambia, the Open Mic Festival, Independence Stadium, Africa, Africell, artist, Banjul, CDATA, Gambia River, Gambian hip-hop, Geography, Local Government Areas of The Gambia, Open mike, The Gambia

Open Mic Festival 2011

 

December 23rd 2011 is the date set aside for what has already proved to be without a doubt, Gambia’s Greatest Music Festival. With over ten thousand attendees of last year’s event held at the Independence Stadium, the fourth anniversary of the annual Open Mic Festival is envisaged to host an even larger crowd.

 

Never before,in the history of our dear nation has there been an event of such magnitude featuring solely young Gambian artistes with no international headlining act to beef-up crowd numbers. The underlying tones of the festival mainly seek to draw attention to our sense of feeling proudly Gambian and simply expressing our Gambian pride through music by staging a world-class event for all, by us.

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Apr 11, 2008

The Cellphone Wars: Part 3

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Africell, Gambia, Music Album Release, Africell building, Africell, founder, Human Interest, Hutchison 3G, Mobile phone, Mobile telecommunications, Musa Balajo, Nancy Nanz, President, Ringtone, SMS, SMS, Technology | 0 Comments
It was the middle of the dry season. The sun was hot, life was slow, and thrilling rumors were circulating in the Gambia about a new cellphone company. These rumors were made up of hushed, fragmentary words whispered in back rooms all over the country - words like: "brothers", and "blood feud", and "fight to the death". As the weeks progressed, the rumors started to get a little less amorphous, and even began to resemble certain facts in the real world: a certain building, made largely of glass, on Kairaba Avenue (situated about two minutes down from the Africell building); large truck-fuls of boxed equipment delivered to this building in broad daylight; page after page of job ads in the papers. The job ads gave a name to the company: Comium. The rumors gave a backstory: the founder of Africell - the rumors ran - had a brother with whom he had originally begun the venture. Once, they had been friends.

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Apr 08, 2008

The Cellphone Wars: Part 2

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Banjul, Gambia, Serekunda highway, Advertising, Africell, Billboard, Business, Communication, Major, Mobile phone, Mobile phones, Mobile telecommunications, Subscriber Identity Module, Technology | 0 Comments
Marketing in The Gambia can be roughly divided into two epochs: the pre-Africell period (also known as the "stick a few billboards on the Banjul-Serekunda highway, do a few spots before the one-o-clock news on rajo gambia, hope we get noticed" period), and the post-Africell ("keep throwing everything you have at the wall - some of it will invariably stick, and even if it doesn't you'll at least get noticed") one. When Africell first opened up shop, they had the unenviable position of having to dislodge a firmly established market leader, and convince thousands of users to switch phone lines (with all the headaches that a change of numbers entails*). They reacted in (what would soon come to be regarded as) typical Africell style: throw enough marketing resources at a problem, and it'll go away.

All businesses are set up with one goal in mind: to get you, the customer, to hand over your hard-earned cash to them, for assorted goods and/or services.

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Feb 08, 2008

The Great Valentine's Day Cash-in

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Gambia, Valentine's day, Africell, CDATA, columnist, Lovelines, Music industry, Valentine's Day | 0 Comments
If u love me like u told me please be careful with my heart - u can take it just don't break it or my world will fall apart. - Africell Valentine's day server quote

Yes! You! too! can get love quotes to send to your loved ones from the Africell Valentine's day messages service - simply send a blank text to 7115. 

And whilst you're still in the Valentine's mood, check out the Observer's Love Lines column - a column where people send in their heartbreak letters, and the columnist gives them advice.

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Sep 10, 2007

Face of Africell Finals

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Kairaba Hotel's Jaama Hall, Africell, Blogger, CDATA, cellular telephone, Ennui, Gambian dalasi, HTML element, World Wide Web, XML | 0 Comments
Yes, it's over. The finals happened on Saturday, from 9pm to about 3am, at the Kairaba Hotel's Jaama Hall. I was invited as a blogger (at the table I was sitting at I mentioned this fact during introductions to an elderly gentleman - he said 'Oh', and turned around to talk to the next person).

Yamundow Leigh won, to noone's surprise. Jainaba Touray came second. All very predictable, given the course of the voting over the last week. Each of the girls got a ten thousand dalasi cash prize, and each of the guests (that's us) got all sorts of cool Africell swag, from sim cards to mobile phone holders.

Now back to your regular GRTS programming ennui...

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Sep 05, 2007

Face of Africell Third Round

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Contact Details, Africa, Africell, CDATA, Gamil, Hehe, Jeskola Buzz, Leigh, XML | 0 Comments
Down to the final round now, with Ms Leigh still in top position, and everyone else madly jostling for second (it has changed every single week, with noone staying second position for more than one round).

The finals are on Saturday and, per usual, Africell have managed to create quite a buzz around the event, making it invite-only and limiting the number of invitations available. (If by any chance you're reading this and have an extra ticket lying around, my email is amrangaye [at] gamil [dot] com, hehe).

Ah well - those of us who don't get any invites can still go to the less trendy but still hip Comium-sponsored "FAWEGAM Face of The Gambia" competition, which is a ticketed event instead, and which takes place on Friday.

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Aug 28, 2007

Face of Africell Second Round

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Africell, cameraman, CDATA, cellular telephone, Leigh, Lilian Bruce Oliver, Technology | 0 Comments
Yesterday ten people were voted out of the face of africell competition, so now it's down to twenty. The girls voted out put on brave "it's ok we can live with it" faces - for five minutes, then burst into inconsolable tears. The ones who didn't get voted out tried to hide their relief, and be gracious, hugging the others and patting them on the back. The GRTS cameraman swung the camera around wildly ("too many cool shots here - which to choose, which to choose?"), so you'd get a glimpse of a thigh here, a flash of a cheek there.

Afterwards they showed the scores, and Ms Leigh came first on the voting tally, with Lilian Bruce Oliver right behind her. The votes will accumulate instead of being reset at each round, which means unless something unexpected happens they will stay as they are now, with very little change from week to week. The finals are on the 8th September.

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Aug 19, 2007

Face of Africell

Posted by amrangaye | Tags: Live From the Gambia, Paris, Africell, CDATA, Entertainment, Imam Baba Leigh, Mobile phones | 0 Comments
Africell have been running a competition to 'discover the face of Africell', with first prize a new car, and second a trip to Paris. The winner also gets to be the full-time PR person for the company. There were judges who got to select the first round of 30 people, and now the public are allowed to vote using their mobile phones for who they think should win the competition.

More than 250 people turned up for preliminary auditions. The audition videos of the 30 people who got selected have been on GRTS TV the past three days, and they were really fun to watch. One thing I was pleased to discover was that the judges didn't choose based on proficiency at English alone, which too many times gets to be a problem over here, with people snobbing other people based on their (lack of) English-speaking skills, which is just plain silly, given that it's not even our language.

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