It has been one week since Kelele was announced, and we’re incredibly surprised and happy with the uptake within the African blogosphere around it. This is true also amongst sponsors as well.

Harvard’s Berkman Institute for Internet and Society
A long-time supporter of blogging in Africa, the Berkman Institute at Harvard was the first one that came on board. In fact, they have been waiting for this type of event to happen in Africa, and their long-time relationship with Daudi makes it a perfect fit. Ethan Zuckerman, one of the Berkman Fellows, is also an established presence in the African blog-space as well.

Afrigator – Africa’s social media aggregator
Luckily for me, I was in Johannesburg when Kelele was announced and had a chance to speak to Mike Stopforth, one of the co-founders of Afrigator. Since Afrigator is the one place that aggregates blogs from all over Africa, this relationship only makes sense. I didn’t have a chance to talk to Justin Hartman, but look for some big announcements from them and us in the future too that will directly play into Kelele.

Zoopy – South Africa’s video hosting site
One of South Africa’s more successful web 2.0 type sites, Zoopy was VERY excited to hear about Kelele and wanted to be one of the main media sponsors. As Daudi, myself and Ndesanjo had been speaking about them well in advance of announcing Kelele, we were thrilled to hear that they wanted to come on board as a sponsor. CAtching up with Nic Haralambous in Jo’burg meant that we got to talk some details and needless to say, this will be a big partnership for Kelele.

Contributors

Foxinni, of Radiiate, was kind enough to create the WordPress design that we are using for the site. Especially nice, as he did it in a rush as we gave him no time…

David Kobia of Ushahidi, created the logo – again, in very little time.