Chi Mgbako is a Nigerian-American human rights professor, lawyer, and writer based in New York City. A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia University, she has conducted human rights fieldwork, advocacy, and teaching in Ghana, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. She has published in the areas of women’s rights, justice sector reform, and contemporary politics. She is currently clinical associate professor of law at Fordham Law School in New York City where she directs the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic.
Lorenzo Morris, Ph.D. is professor of political science at Howard University. He provides frequent multinational television and radio political commentary in French and English. He recently held the Tocqueville-Fulbright Chair at the University of Paris after having chaired his department at Howard U. in Washington for six years. He has been an officer in several national academic organizations, a professor at the M.I.T and a research fellow of the Brookings Institution. He has consulted on election practices, civil rights and public policy in numerous countries in Africa and the Americas.
Natacha Mikolo is a communications and marketing professional and is an avid entertainment contributor for various panafrican medias. A real world citizen, born in Congo Brazzaville and currently living in France, Natacha has also lived in Cuba, Zimbabwe, Congo and England. She considers herself at home wherever there is great food, music, WiFi and, of course, people to write about.
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, a native Ghanaian, is author of the groundbreaking memoir, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression, and editor of three critically anthologies: Becoming American: Personal Essays by First Generation Immigrant Women, Shaking the Tree: New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women, and most recently, The Black Body. She is also a poet, public speaker, and radio commentator. Danquah divides her time between Los Angeles, California and Accra, Ghana.
Stefan Simanowitz is a campaigning journalist and human rights activist. He writes regularly for international newspapers and magazines including the Independent and has worked for Liberty, the European Commission and the ANC. He is Chair of the Westminister Committee on Iran and Chair of the Free Western Sahara Network. Visit his website on www.simanowitz.ning.com.
R. Ayité Okyne specializes in branding and integrated marketing communications. He produces and directs live experiential events for entertainment and corporate clients. He is also Co-National Director of the Miss Universe™ Pageant for Ghana. Ayite has lived in Switzerland, Russia, the UK, Ghana, and now lives in Los Angeles in the United States.
Antoinette Herrmann-Condobrey is a journalist from Ghana. She has a soft spot for magazine reporting, where she has functioned as editor and senior reporter. Her interests have largely been Arts and Culture reporting, Profiling and photojournalism – areas which she describes as ones that “bring out the human in me.” But don’t be surprised to find her exerting equal passion for a host of issues – from politics through technology to the environment – which she regularly writes about. “Practicing journalism for me is as natural as living life itself,” she says, “but what keeps me going is my responsibility to the public.” Antoinette is currently based in New Jersey and loves to travel.
Marty Mueller gives art deco architectural walking & bike tours in Miami Beach, Florida, US. Previously, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Libya (pre-Gaddafi!) and, more recently (2000-2002), the Peace Corps Director in Cote d’Ivoire.
Hama Tuma, Ethiopian author, poet and journalist, has been active in the political and human rights struggle in Ethiopia and Africa since the sixties. His satirical essays under the general title of African Absurdities have gained support from many quarters. Some of his books (English and Amharic) have been translated to French, Italian and Hebrew.
Franklin Cudjoe is head of Ghanaian think tank, IMANI, a non-profit, non-government organization dedicated to fostering public awareness of important policy issues concerning business, government and civil society. He is also editor of AfricanLiberty.org. The Foreign Policy Magazine named IMANI, the fifth most influential think tank in Africa in 2010. Franklin was named Young Global Leader 2010 by the World Economic Forum.
Joseph Hellweg is Asst. Prof. of Religion at Florida State Univeristy. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Virginia and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale. He has done research with initiated hunters (dozos) and on HIV and AIDS in Côte d’Ivoire from 1993-1997 and in 2002. In 2008-2009, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Kankan, Guinea, where he taught social science research methods. He will complete his fellowship at the University of Bamako. He speaks French and Mandenkan and eats fonio with okra sauce whenever possible.
David J. Blanc is a French radio consultant as well as a visiting professor at the American University of Paris. He is a member of the reputable SNRL (national radio syndicate) in Paris and has been instrumental in the setting-up of several radio stations, both digital and traditional, across Europe and Africa. His interest in technology cuts across several areas.
Zubin Cooper is a media professional and is an avid follower and proponent of African culture and its impact on new media. A self proclaimed bon vivant, born in Monrovia, Liberia and currently living in Monrovia, Liberia, not far from the beach, Zubin has lived in the US, Spain, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and visited many other African and European nations. Zubin is currently involved in the running of omuahtee AFRICA media, an African Media company and in the execution of different projects. He’s filmed, co-produced and participated in many projects most centered on his beloved continent in the West African sub-region. He believes that media professionals, Journalists and filmmakers are modern day Griots; living historians and storytellers with a duty to record and share what they see, hear and believe.
Linn Washington Jr. is an award-winning journalist who writes a weekly column for The Philadelphia Tribune. A graduate of the Yale Law Journalism Fellowship, Washington writes regularly on issues involving law, the criminal justice system, news media and inequities involving race and/or class. This ’information junkie’ teaches multi-media urban reporting at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. He lives in New Jersey and frequently travels abroad.
Awo Sarpong Ansu is an attorney and writer who lives in Maryland with her husband and their two children. Born in Ghana and raised in New York, her articles have been published in print and on-line magazines including Jamati, BHF Magazine and African Vibes. Awo is currently working on a collection of short stories about the African immigrant experience.
An unkempt bookworm with a solid taste for dance parties and an insatiable appetite for travel. Carrying with him three nationalities (French, American and Filipino), Fabien Ortiz has a foothold in three different continents and a solid interest in Africa. A political science and history graduate from McGill University in Canada, he has worked for newspapers and radios in France, the United States and Switzerland. His next job will be taking him to Washington D.C., an interesting vantage point from which to watch world affairs. And yet he already knows he will soon be setting sail to other destinations, dreamily describing his experiences, casting a critical glance on social and political trends, people and events.
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