2009 African Bloggers Conference set for Kenya

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Kelele - Kiswahili for noise - is the name given to the 2009 African Bloggers Conference which is held in a different African city each year. The event, organised by the Kelele Organising Committee, will be held from 13 - 16 August 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The gathering of African bloggers aims to be organised in the tradition of historical African societies where everyone has a voice. With too many voices marginalised or simply ignored in African society today for a variety of reasons, the organisers believe that the internet in general and grassroots media tools such as blogs in particular represent the most powerful way in which to give Africans back their voice.

The theme of Kelele '09 Nairobi is "Beat Your Drum" - connecting the traditional African method of getting a message across vast distances - the talking drums - to the 21st century and the tools used today to get messages across, blogs and the Internet.

Summary of the proposed programme:

Day 1 - August 13 : Arrival in Nairobi and official opening
Day 2 - August 14 : Conference day
Day 3 - August 15 : Skills/Training day and outreach day. Official closing
Day 4 - August 16 : Sight-seeing / departure

The conference's sister event is the African Bloggers Awards, which aims to recognise the top blogger from each African country. The winner from each country will be invited and sponsored to attend Kelele '09 Nairobi.

For more information, go to http://www.kelele.org.