Everybody’s trying to rebrand Africa, and it isn’t going so well. Vogue Italia’s latest issue... is called “Rebranding Africa”, and as you’d expect the whole thing is an embarrassing and insulting shambles. The images are okay, but otherwise it feels like something a middle-schooler cobbled together for a class project. And then got a “D” for it.

This program is part of the President’s Young African Leaders Initiative, the Obama Administration’s long-term program to engage Africa’s young leaders who are actively promoting positive change in their communities. The President’s Initiative...has included more than 2,000 U.S. Government-sponsored programs for young leaders across sub-Saharan Africa.

Young creative people and entrepreneurs in Nigeria stand the chance of winning prizes, in a series of competition recently unveiled by theideaworks, a design and strategy firm based in Delhi. Called ‘INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future’, the initiative comprises an online contest and a young visionaries segment for young entrepreneurs in India and Africa.

The culture that teaches that a king could become a slave and a slave could become a king in their midst and that the way a child is born is the same way a slave is born put the Yoruba culture up front amongst world cultures, East, West, North and South. In Western Nigeria it is not so much where you come from but how willing to assimilate and be accommodated as one of theirs, never had ethnic roundup. Always survive by their wish for others sometime to a fault.

India has found a new gateway to project its Africa diplomacy as it explores a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is engaged in a range of activities in the emerging continent. This possibility of collaborating in Africa emerged from talks between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Microsoft founder Bill Gates here Thursday.

In this respect, MTN Rwanda has supported and promoted the development of sports. This year alone the company sponsored the '2012 Peace Cup' soccer tournament was at the tune of Frw 51.4 million. It also supported local musicians through its involvement in the annual 'Salax Music Awards.

A prominent Somali living and working in Mogadishu, for example, very enthusiastically told the author of this article that ‘Somalis love Turks and what they’re doing’. It is also noteworthy that its diplomatic efforts in Somalia presented Turkey with an important opportunity to illustrate its soft power in Africa.

“The top ten Most Valuable African Nations are without a question among the most dynamic African nations at the forefront of re-inventing Africa’s image, reputation and competitiveness,” said Thebe Ikalafeng, founder and chairman of Brand Africa.