Ohio Native Creates Song To Help You Remember All The Countries in Africa

There’s always that one teacher you will never forget. For Calid Bowen, that teacher taught Swahili at The Ohio State University and required students to learn all 54 countries in Africa.

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After realizing that he forgot some of the countries he worked so hard to memorize, Bowen, who teaches marketing at Columbia College in Chicago, decided to come up with a unique way to help people to remember all 54 countries in Africa.

In an interview with Travel Noire, Bowen, also known as Calid B, explains his motivation behind the hilarious song and video titled “Vacay.”

Travel Noire: What inspired you to create this video?

CB: Personally, I wanted to create something that I would feel proud of, which is remembering all the countries in Africa.

My guy sent a beat to me, I had this song concept and I started listing out the countries to find out what rhymed and the flow for it.

Adding the video was just to make it both educational and fun.

TN: Why did you feel this song was needed?

I find that a lot of us don’t know a lot about Africa. It’s not taught in schools and it’s not showcased in mainstream media as it should be.  Black Panther is one of the most recent portrayals of Africa in a positive light and it’s changing the narrative of how we think about the continent, which is great.

I think we’re in a good space right now so I decided to leverage this point to keep shining the light on Africa and helping people to learn about it.    

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TN: What do you hope to do with this song?

CB: I hope that I inspire people to be more curious about the continent. I tried to use tropical images in the background to inspire people to travel to Africa. Africa is a vacation destination.  You can experience your culture, history and heritage, and at an affordable rate compared to the other popular places.

My goal is to inspire and to teach. 

TN: What’s can people expect from next?

I plan to create music that’s educational and fun. It’s my lane. I like to create.

As a son of the diaspora, my dad is from Ivory Coast, I plan on creating more content that centers around the diaspora.

Calid B can be reached on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.