Atim Oton

This is the fourth blog in my series, The Pulse of Africa talking with Global Africans working in Africa and across the Diaspora. It takes an inside view on Africa's progress, issues on arts and culture, technology and opportunities in this decade. See the series here.

Spring brings...

This is the third blog in my series, The Pulse of Africa talking with Global Africans working in Africa and across the Diaspora. It takes an inside view on Africa's progress, issues on arts and culture, technology and opportunities in this decade. See the series here.

Let's face...

This is the second blog in my series, The Pulse of Africa talking with Global Africans working in Africa and across the Diaspora. It takes an inside view on Africa's progress, issues on arts and culture, technology and opportunities in this decade. See the first here.

In 2000,...

This is the first blog in my series, The Pulse of Africa talking with Global Africans working in Africa and across the Diaspora. It takes an inside view on Africa's progress, issues on arts and culture, technology and opportunities in this decade.

Early this month, artist Brett Cook sent me...

Fashion is a tough profession for anyone. Most observers see it as fun and glamorous but those who participate in it know that it is a serious business. It takes guts and determination. And as Fashion week begins in New York, I have been contemplating on how independent fashion designers...

I was born in the Niger Delta, and lived in the Niger Delta in Nigeria until I came to the U.S. In some ways, I can be considered a child of big oil -- Mobil Oil -- to be specific. But I own no oil fields and none of my...

I start 2012 contemplating how things in Africa have been and wonder why people keep stating that Africa should be learning from the West. I often wonder about this conflicting statement: Africa must learn from the West. It is usually coming from people who talk to me about independence from...

For the last seven years in my travels across the African continent, I try to pay attention and listen to what things are troubling some African businesses and traders in retail and exports. AGOA is the one word that keeps coming up with excessive groans. In English and French, small...

In 1985, I came to the US to study architecture with plans to leave and return to Nigeria. I am still here. Since 2001, I have periodically reconsidered why I am still here and the last three years even more so. Between terrorism and the financial crisis, most Africans, even...

As an African woman, I declare: The Nobel Prize got it right, it celebrated three African women. Two Liberians and one Yemeni woman were honored. Two grassroots leaders -- women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen and one president -- Liberian President Ellen...

When the Lion King came to Broadway in 1997, I was happy for Africa. The Lion King is a 1994 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Ok, I agree it is not a realistic picture of Africa but I will take it as opposed to the...

This week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation selected yet another male African leader for its Ibrahim Prize. This time, it was former leader, President Pedro Verona Pires of Cape Verde, who won the 2011 Ibrahim prize for achievement in African leadership. The foundation did not nominate any leaders the...

Early this month, I responded to a series of questions by a Crain's Business reporter on the state of importing for small businesses like mine -- see article here. And as I replayed some of the questions and the responses I gave; I realized, I really do have...

In the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of African fashion shows launching, and most of them are not in Africa. In New York, there is Africa Fashion Week (New York) with the sole purpose of raising awareness of the African fashion/entertainment professionals in New...

Since late 2006, I have been working in Nigeria in the retail sector after leaving a six-year stint as an Associate Chair of Product Design at Parsons School of Design, where I harnessed some out-of-the-box thinking capabilities. I worked with and implemented the ideas of an innovator, Tony Whitfield, who...