The Original Hat Man of Africa

The original hat man of Africa? What is a hat? How does it relate to man, and can one really see any sense in the words, "Africa has a hat man?" well, I was trying to make some noise so as to stir up your pure minds to activity even as you try to find out what answers to the above questions are; and perhaps get to have a deep cogitating process for finding out who the man behind the idea "The Original Hat (heart) Man of Africa" really is, and how he came about that fascinating and tantalizing honoring title from the Africans, whom he has the heart (hat) to provide with shade and succor through education and rural ICT connectivity projects for development. The first day we met online he told me, "Amedu, we are going to work together to setup a network called villagetalk. Edu. For the Africans," I said, wow! How could it work?

Prof. Azania, Fredrica Clare

Well, it is good I save you the energy for too much cogitation. Please meet Ben Koot: The Original Hat Man of Africa. As a tourist, who derives pleasure from traveling and visiting places where he can discover needs and meet them to capacity, Ben has the unique mandate of helping the people in Africa make the BEST use of the internet for growth and development. You may still be wondering while in trying to describe this Africa man, I inter use the word "hat" for heart and "heart" for hat. However, this is not far away from the meaning of the kind of being he is both on the inside and outside. Before more could be said on this, lets revisit our first question "what is a hat?" according to the 7th edition of the oxford-advanced learner's dictionary, a hat is " a covering made to fit the head, often with a BRIM, (a flat edge that sticks out) and worn out of doors: a straw/woolly etc hat." What I got from that is, the hat protects the head and other sense organs around it from the sun and provides them covering and shade for comfort.

Amedu Monday Amedu

Now, Ben Koot is The Original Hat Man of Africa, not only because his white skin requires it, and he knows: "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun!" Really, because Ben is a man who, when it comes to African, always puts on the physical hat with spiritual intention! The hat means, he has the heart to get the job done, no matter what! Ben's job? …developing Africa through education and connectivity. Hmm.., already he has empowered the lives of many African people, such as me; and, including a few Africans living in the African Diaspora; (ABDs,) Africa's Black Diasporas Ask Frederica Azania Clare. Ben has also empowered Azania on the net, and, the lives of many Africans, via his prodigious knowledge of digital technology; Ben sets up free business sites for us, and also encourages Africans networking together initiative.

Ben has graciously given not only his time and expertise but also necessary operational software and access to information and resources that is enabling us to become self-sufficient while sustaining our communities, back to our green identities. Thanks to Ben and his big brimmed hat/heart, we are becoming self-reliant via our various businesses and African development projects. Most of us, since the first conversation we had with this human hat, Ben, who refers to himself as "the naughty IT professor in Holland," have been off to putting up our own websites, ideas, links and leads, building together a platform that will connect Africa's local communities (villages) to the world's fast growing ICT tool, the internet, and, all that is digital communications.

Ben told me that the platform we Africans have created will also connect us to various universities and provide them the freeware to start running their online programs for our benefit. I want you to know that am talking about someone who's never been to Africa, in all his touring days, but whose head and heart live there. Ben carries a diary he is never without which contains a whole lot of issues that concern the village people in Africa; our survival; and, strategies we can develop for our triumph. You serve Africa, Ben. A red carpet awaits you!

Here again; the original hat man of Africa: Ben Koot.

Among us self-sustained Africans, are Sangoma Azania, who actually coined the name “Africa man" for Ben, the name which later evolved into "The Original Hat Man of Africa," and Fred Obala the founder of UMCID in Uganda; putting heads together to construct a "cob-web" (Villagetalk Education Network - VEN-U-AFRICA) that will later become a local pump. It is already a lively place where every African can share ideas, knowledge, leave notes and find fresh information that could be helpful in solving local challenges, and it is also social, in a sense that each individual neighbor and registered member has his or her own spot on the network.