For those listeners in North America, February is Black History Month. Week in and week out on this podcast, we’re all about how our Black present syncs with our history and all things forward for people of the Black diaspora worldwide. This week’s conversation zooms in on a healthcare infrastrucutre solution that has the potential to transform how emergency response services are designed and implemented with the realities of African communities in mind. My guest this week, Folake Owodunni is the co-founder and CEO of Emergency Response Africa (ERA), a health tech company revolutionizing access to emergency care in Africa, beginning with Nigeria. With over 15 years of experience across healthcare, marketing, and consulting in Nigeria, the U.S., and Canada, she brings a dynamic and cross-sectoral approach to solving complex health challenges.

Under her leadership, ERA has managed over 4,500 medical emergencies, reducing response times by up to 80%, and forging partnerships with forward-thinking state governments including Edo, Ogun, and Rivers.

Also a certified First Responder with the Canadian Red Cross, she is passionate about Africa’s rising tech ecosystem and making fast, reliable emergency medical care accessible to all Africans using technology. Recognized for her innovation and impact, she has received multiple awards and development grants, including the Google Black Founders Fund, JICA’s Next Innovation with Japan Award, The Professor Grace Alele-Williams Alumni Impact Award, and most recently, the global Aurora Tech Award.

As you’ll hear in the conversation, ERA is appealing to the the Black/African Diaspora to get involved! Health is wealth so #listenandlearn how you can forward ERA’s mission to deliver fast, reliable emergency care across Africa.

Where to find Folake?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Folake reading?
Tessa Afshar’s Jewel of the Nile
Finding Flow: The Psychology Of Engagement With Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalhi
[The CEO Only Does Three Things: Finding Your Focus in the C-Suite](link https://www.scribd.com/document/898002899/A-CEO-Only-Does-Three-Things) by Trey Taylor

What’s Folake listening to?
Diary of a CEO Podcast
[The Lazy CEO](link https://www.thelazyceo.com/)

Other topics of interest:
Ogun State, Nigeria
Kitchner - Waterloo, Canada
Meet Dr. Ola Brown of Flying Doctors Nigeria
About The Prosperity Paradox
African Journal for Emergency Medicine
About Biblical Fiction

Special Guest: Folake Owodunni.

The spirit of summers past visits with us this week; it’s another Glocal Citizens @‌5flashback forward episode. In 2023, my guest this week, Hawa Kombian joined us for a two part conversation while she was based in her adopted home country, Canada. Today she's back in Ghana spreading new wings as a leadership strategist, resilience coach, and organizational advisor dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations sustain their impact without sacrificing their people.

With 14+ years of experience in social impact leadership, public speaking, and organizational change, she has worked with leaders across North America, Africa, and Europe to prevent burnout, build resilient teams, and create lasting cultural shifts at both the individual and organizational levels.

And that’s where we’re picking up this week’s conversation. As a sought-after speaker and facilitator, she integrates mental resilience, emotional intelligence, and strategic leadership to help leaders navigate high-pressure environments without falling into unproductive burnout loops.

Where to find Hawa?
Hawa Kombian Consulting
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Soundcloud

What’s Hawa reading?
Dead Money by Jakob Kerr

Other topics of interest:
Gambaga, Ghana
About Najong #1
“Yaya hanya” and other beginning Hausa
P4 Pilates, Accra
Kukun Open Mic in Accra

Special Guest: Hawa Kombian.

This week on the podcast we have another gift from the Glocal Citizens community. In this two part conversation we meet Dr. Osei Alleyne. A joint PhD in Anthropology and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and former inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn, Dr. Osei also holds an MA in Communications from Temple University. A still active internationally touring professional Canadian Hip hop artist and Spoken word poet of Trinidad & Tobago extract, his field research employs a multi-modal ethnography of Reggae, Rastafari, Afrobeat and Hip-hop performance communities and related social justice movements across the African diaspora, with an emphasis on the black Atlantic nexus between Jamaica and Ghana. We recently met while he was in Ghana working on his forthcoming book, Dancehall Diaspora: Rastafari and Rudeness in the African Postcolony, thanks to consumate connector, Muhammida el Muhajir. As Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Production at Temple University, his writing repertoire spans African diasporic art and philosophy movements such as afrofuturism, afropolitanism and afropessimism. In this conversation, Dr. Osei offers an insightful glimpse into the spaces he has navigated in honing this and his other crafts.

Where to find Osei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Osei watching?
First Peoples Documentary

Other topics of interest:
About Trinidad and Tobago
History about Carnivals in the Black Diaspora
The Book of African Names
On Africana Studies
About Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden
About The Black Star Line,
Garveyism, and The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
About Ethiopianism
Alex Haley’s Roots
Association of Black Anthropologists
Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist and Anthropologist
About Cheik Anta Diop
About what was to be Akon City
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Debate 1967
About Cultural Theorist Stuart Hall
About Author and Scholar, Paul Gilroy
Martin Bernal and Black Athena
Reggie Rockston and HipLife
About Shatta Wale
What is the Theory of Mind
Black Holes and the Macro Universe

Special Guest: Osei Alleyne.

This week on the podcast we have another gift from the Glocal Citizens community. In this two part conversation we meet Dr. Osei Alleyne. A joint PhD in Anthropology and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and former inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at Penn, Dr. Osei also holds an MA in Communications from Temple University. A still active internationally touring professional Canadian Hip hop artist and Spoken word poet of Trinidad & Tobago extract, his field research employs a multi-modal ethnography of Reggae, Rastafari, Afrobeat and Hip-hop performance communities and related social justice movements across the African diaspora, with an emphasis on the black Atlantic nexus between Jamaica and Ghana. We recently met while he was in Ghana working on his forthcoming book, Dancehall Diaspora: Rastafari and Rudeness in the African Postcolony, thanks to consumate connector, Muhammida el Muhajir. As Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Production at Temple University, his writing repertoire spans African diasporic art and philosophy movements such as afrofuturism, afropolitanism and afropessimism. In this conversation, Dr. Osei offers an insightful glimpse into the spaces he has navigated in honing this and his other crafts.

Where to find Osei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Osei watching?
First Peoples Documentary

Other topics of interest:
About Trinidad and Tobago
History about Carnivals in the Black Diaspora
The Book of African Names
On Africana Studies
About Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden
About The Black Star Line,
Garveyism, and The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
About Ethiopianism
Alex Haley’s Roots
Association of Black Anthropologists
Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist and Anthropologist
About Cheik Anta Diop
About what was to be Akon City
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Debate 1967
About Cultural Theorist Stuart Hall
About Author and Scholar, Paul Gilroy
Martin Bernal and Black Athena
Reggie Rockston and HipLife
About Shatta Wale
What is the Theory of Mind
Black Holes and the Macro Universe

Special Guest: Osei Alleyne.

This week’s guest, Tina Mbachu Obodozie first joined me in conversation in 2021, thanks fo the #BWiD Connect Whatsapp group. Since our first chat, she has shifted to a bi-continental lifestyle, based mostly in Nigeria as the new Exectuive Director of the Innovate Africa Foundation, while also managing her business activities in Canada. As a business and sustainable development expert specializing in business design, social impact assessment, and strategy development, her cross-sector career includes technology, natural resources, and the creative economy, where she has led teams, formed partnerships, and built development programs and incubators supporting market-creating innovations. Tina has worked with organizations like DMZ-a Toronto-based tech incubator and global startup ecosystem as well as Plan Canada, securing millions in funding and driving social and economic change. A recognized thought leader and ecosystem builder, she was named The Peak Emerging Leader 2024 in the Entrepreneurship category.

Where to find Tina?
@catalyst Venture
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Tina reading?
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Other topics of interest:
About World Product Day
What is Product Development all about?
More about Innovate Africa Foundation founder, Christian Idiodi
What is a susu?

Special Guest: Tina Mbachu Obodozie.

Where to find Ivy?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube
On Facebook
On Pintrest

Listen to Ivy on Farm Radio International’s Nature Answers
Get your copy of Ivy’s book Your Essential Guide to Moving to Ghana

Other topics of interest:
Tema at the Center of the Earth
Maternal Health Channel Founder Kwesi Owusu
About St. Catharine’s and the Underground Railroad
About Sambra City
About Gated Housing Estates in Ghana

Special Guest: Ivy Prosper.

We’re traveling from Canada to the north of Ghana and back again in this two part conversation with Ghanaian-Canadian, Hawa Kombian. As an intentional, passionate and creative leader who enables organizational founders’ and their teams to achieve operational sustainability and social vibrancy by building results-driven cultures of connection, Hawa is squarely focused on bridges all the dimensions of leadership toward more impact and sustainable presents for her clients.

Having a background in communications, and humanitarian pursuits with organizations leading in innovative technology and social change, her experience spans education, digital health, and leadership development across government, non-profit, and social enterprise sectors.

She is an empathetic systems-builder, which means she seamlessly flows between cultivating authentic relationships with people to draw out their strengths, and creating strategic processes that allow teams to collaborate and achieve success together.

You can find her public speaking at events and podcasts on people and organizational management; blogging about personal, and professional strategy; and coaching leaders on how to strategically make an impact in their organizations and communities. Work with her via Hawa Kombian Consulting

Where to find Hawa?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Soundcloud
On Twitter

What’s Hawa watching?
BoJack Horseman
SpongeBob SquarePants

Other topics of interest:
Gambaga in Northeast Ghana
Bunkpurugu in Northern Ghana
About the new International Tamale Airport
Youth Alive Ghana
African Leadership Group
eHealth Africa

Special Guest: Hawa Kombian.

We’re traveling from Canada to the north of Ghana and back again in this two part conversation with Ghanaian-Canadian, Hawa Kombian. As an intentional, passionate and creative leader who enables organizational founders’ and their teams to achieve operational sustainability and social vibrancy by building results-driven cultures of connection, Hawa is squarely focused on bridges all the dimensions of leadership toward more impact and sustainable presents for her clients.

Having a background in communications, and humanitarian pursuits with organizations leading in innovative technology and social change, her experience spans education, digital health, and leadership development across government, non-profit, and social enterprise sectors.

She is an empathetic systems-builder, which means she seamlessly flows between cultivating authentic relationships with people to draw out their strengths, and creating strategic processes that allow teams to collaborate and achieve success together.

You can find her public speaking at events and podcasts on people and organizational management; blogging about personal, and professional strategy; and coaching leaders on how to strategically make an impact in their organizations and communities. Work with her via Hawa Kombian Consulting

Where to find Hawa?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Soundcloud
On Twitter

What’s Hawa watching?
BoJack Horseman
SpongeBob SquarePants

Other topics of interest:
Gambaga in Northeast Ghana
Bunkpurugu in Northern Ghana
About the new International Tamale Airport
Youth Alive Ghana
African Leadership Group
eHealth Africa

Special Guest: Hawa Kombian.

My guest this week is a media professional and content creator that rounds out our first 100 episodes quite nicely. Ivy Prosper is Ghanaian born and while spending the majority of her life in Canada she is a passionate Pan-Africa and has developed a desire to help tell stories that can change the negative narrative of Africa often portrayed in the media. is very passionate about advocating for women and doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind when it comes to gender issues and educating people who don’t understand the disparity that still exists when it comes to gender equality. For over a decade she has been a public speaker addressing concerns related to the empowerment women.

Born in Ghana, she immigrated to Canada at an early age with her parents. A graduate of Ryerson University, her career in the public eye began as a teen when she was pursuing a career as a fashion model before venturing into the fashion industry first as a designer then in retail footwear until she became an assistant buyer for a women's retailer. She later made a career change after studying Radio & Television Broadcasting at Specs Howard School of Media Art in Detroit, Michigan. Since then she has worked as a Television Reporter, Host, Producer and script-writer on various projects.

Most notably she worked as a Consultant/Fixer on one episode of the Christiane Amanpour series, Sex & Love Around the World, which aired on CNN in 2018. She was nominated for Host of the Year in a Development Series by the RTP Awards in Ghana for her work on The Maternal Health Channel TV Series in 2013. Over the last year she has been a freelance Producer on documentary film projects with Refined Creative, a production company based in Ghana.

As a reporter she’s interviewed noteworthy people including Oscar-Winning Director, Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Actor/Producer Idris Elba, Oscar-Nominated actor Jake Gyllenhall, Recording artist Akon, Comedian Leslie Jones, Actor David Oyelowo, Grammy-winning recording artist Melanie Fiona and many more.

There is so much more to Ivy, listen in and fully Prosper!

Where to find Ivy?
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On YouTube
On Facebook
On Pintrest

What's Ivy reading?
Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success by John C. Maxwell

Other topics of interest:
Mel Robbins' The 5Second Rule
NAACP Niagara Movement
Year of Return and Beyond
Maternal Health Channel

Grand Health Bazaar
...and join me on November 23rd @ 2PM WAT as moderate the COVID-19 status and solution-scaping afternoon sessions.

*When you click and purchase books using the link(s) above, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support!

Special Guest: Ivy Prosper.

I catch up with Will while he is in our shared home country, Ghana where he has been for the better part of the last year on new uncle duty and in research mode for his next project. He is in the post-production process of his second short film “ELEMENT” while also preparing his first feature film experience, co-writing alongside Jérémy Comte, the Oscar-nominated director. As you'll hear in Part 2, Will is now represented by LA based production studio Florence for commercials and music videos which has given him the opportunity to work with artist such as H.E.R and Billy Eilish.

Where to find Will?
www.wniava.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Vimeo
On YouTube
On Twitter
On Facebook

What's will listening to?
Classic Reggae
AmaPiano
Dave

What's will watching?
Memories of a Murder
In the Mood for Love
Uncut Gems
Good Time

Other topics of interest:
NAFTI Ghana
Concordia University - Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema
Black Magic Equipment
Red Digital Equipment
Ghanaian Footballers Jordan Ayew and André Ayew
Fauve Short Film
Solitary Dancer
Barry Jenkins
Jordan Peele
About Amapiano
Afrofuturism

Special Guest: Will Niava.

We're welcoming August with a doubleheader featuring Will Niava, an award winning Ivorian-Ghanaian film director based but not bound to Montréal, Canada. After his education in film production at the Concordia University in Quebec, Will directed a number of projects around the world--namely, four episodes of MTV Shuga, a fiction series in the Ivory Coast as well as “Violence Of The Lambs”, a music video released on NOWNESS from which he made his first short film “ZOO.” ZOO was selected at over 60 international film festivals of which 15 are Oscar qualifying. The film has since racked up over 10 awards. After its Vimeo Staff Picks release, ZOO is now available on the prestigious Criterion Collection.

I catch up with Will while he is in our shared home country, Ghana where he has been for the better part of the last year on new uncle duty and in research mode for his next project. He is in the post-production process of his second short film “ELEMENT” while also preparing his first feature film experience, co-writing alongside Jérémy Comte, the Oscar-nominated director. As you'll hear in Part 2, Will is now represented by Los Angeles based production studio Florence. for commercials and music videos which has given him the opportunity to work with artist such as H.E.R and Billy Eilish.

Where to find Will?
[www.wniava.com](www.wniava.com)
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Vimeo
On YouTube
On Twitter
On Facebook

What's will listening to?
Classic Reggae
AmaPiano
Dave

What's will watching?
Memories of a Murder
In the Mood for Love
Uncut Gems
Good Time

Other topics of interest:
NAFTI Ghana
Concordia University - Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema [
Black Magic Equipment
Red Digital Equipment
Ghanaian Footballers Jordan Ayew and André Ayew
Fauve Short Film
Solitary Dancer
Barry Jenkins
Jordan Peele
About Amapiano
Afrofuturism

Special Guest: Will Niava.

In his work as a lawyer, he has represented the student leaders of Tiananmen Square, victims of the Bosnian genocide, freed a man from death row, and helped free an innocent man serving life for murder as the fifteenth lawyer to take up the case. He is a recipient of the Brown Alumni Association’s highest honor, given to one graduate per year. A Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute, and a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at McGill University. Jaykumar holds a JD and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and a BA from Brown University.

I am sure this discussion will be plenty of food for thought and practice; I encourage you to read on, visit and get involved with this pioneering work!

Where to find Jaykumar:
www.ospfound.org
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Facbook

What's Jaykumar reading?
The Stoics and Marcus Aurelius
Joan Dideon
Ernest Hemingway
Sherwood Anderson
Tom Wolfe
Bruce Chatwin
Arundhati Roy

Other topics of interest:
XPRIZE Foundation
Dr. Robert Gallo
March of Dimes
University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology
The Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (I-AIM)
8 Limbs of Yoga
The Five Tibetan Rites

Special Guest: Jaykumar Menon.