Hallo Afrinado…

Did you know Instagram started off as a check in app called Burb’n?

The founders soon discovered that the Burb’n users were more interested in sharing pictures than they were in checking in and Boom! Instagram was born. YouTube apparently started off as a dating app… moral of the story, it’s now time for a name change.

It’s been a month and a half and I have learnt a lot. The great feedback and support let me know I was heading in the right direction but ultimately the big decisions rest with me. I am that crazy person up at 4am, writing posts and creating plans for interviews and stories while mosquitos make a feast of my ankles.

Name change in my case entailed a lot of Kamusi page flipping, Kiswahili and Taita word contributions from mum, Whatsapp crowdsourcing that bordered on harassment and finally coming to the realisation that most Swahili and African sounding names belonged to cybersquatters from China, Arizona, US and Stratford,UK, you know who you are, the ancestors are watching you. Anyway, it was time to make up a new word and run with it, here are some of the reasons why…

Binti was an idea I had in 2012…and things have changed since then. A lot. For instance, and yes this is not deep, Rihanna has released two albums between then and now. From singing Diamonds to bobbing to Same ol Mistakes (my favourite), The zeitgist is just not the same, ya dig?

I wanted a site will all the bells and whistles, and bells and whistles, I soon found out, cost a lot of money. Also, most of places I worked did not look to kindly to journalists doing things which, in their view, would compete with the work they were paid to do. This left me with the option of finding a cheap and covert way of starting the site, a perfect recipe for procrastination.

Like I said a lot has changed since then and I am now a believer in the “ Do it now or forever hold your peace motto”.

“You will either step forward into growth or step back into safety”  — Abraham Maslow

Here’s to growth. And stepping forward.

🙂