Interview with Political Activist, Speaker and Soulfege Band Member: Derrick Ashong (Part 1)
July 14th, 2008
The Interview
Things Covered
1) Brief snapshot of the earlier years in Derrick Ashong’s life
2) The relationship between Africans and African Americans
3) Derrick’s relationship with African Americans and Caucasians in his final years of high school.
4) How Derrick ended up in Harvard
5) Derrick’s experience as a major in African American studies
6) Most important insight that Derrick learned about Africans and African Americans after years of study
7) How did he end up becoming a professional public speaker
Who does he speak to as a professional speaker? What does he speak about?
9) What intrinsic values does Africa have?
10) Great take on the tribal disparities in Africa
11) Why don’t more African youth participate in the development of Africa and its diaspora in a meaningful way?
12) Are we African immigrants doing enough?
Important Websites
1) Soulfege website: www.soulfege.com
2) Soulfege Facebook page: www.facebook.com/soulfege
3) Derrick Ashong’s famous Obama video:
Also Check Out the Following Articles:
July 15th, 2008 at 3:08 am
I loved the interview. The jamaa is really inspiring. You did well, had dope swaliz and you made him comfortable enough to laugh genuinely and just express himself. On the the technical side of the podcast, I wanted to sema that there is a slight glitch 11mins 35secs into the interview.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:18 am
@rags: Just before I was interviewed by Capital FM, I wrote to Derrick and asked him, since he was such a fantastic guest, if he had any words of advice for me. His advice was: have fun with it.
I am glad you could see that he followed his own advice. I had a blast doing this interview. As always rags, the tips are appreciated. I am shifting over to a new sound editor who will be doing all my podcast editing and you best believe almost all her notes will have their roots in rags advice.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:21 am
@rags: The glitch at 11:35 fortunately does not take away from the message, it was basically a time when we talked over each other before he got to the point he wanted to express.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Thanks man!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
Hi Man - I just listened to you and Derrick on AfricanLoft Lounge, great conversation - I think you are up to something big… Keep it up!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 am
@ayo: Thanks for the kind words about the blog. Subscribe to the podcast via Itunes because I plan on bringing a lot more good stuff in future. For a short video that shows you how to subscribe to the tDA podcast, which I update weekly by this point, check this page out:
http://www.thedisplacedafrican.com/how-to-subcribe-to-the-displaced-african-podcast/