Emmanuel Richardson's role is presented on the OVF website as:
"Emmanuel Richardson – Program manager of Unity Drum – is passionate about his culture and tradition. Growing up in Cape Coast, Ghana, he lives and breathes the stories and rhythms of his elders’ life experiences. His dream is to share his culture with the world through dancing, drumming, singing and storytelling. He is a modern-day ‘GRIOT’ – the traditions carrier to create civilization and community life. He has been an instrumental goodwill ambassador of Ghana to the Taiwanese Youth during oneVillage’s EcoTour Service and Learning Program in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Richardson will lead a group of young Ghaha performing artists to participate in OVF ’digital archive’ program to form collaborative networked improved community with Taiwan NTHU Youth in art for development." http://www.onevillagefoundation.org/team
"... the GRIOT tradition of West Africa which has been the core of my motivation in designing oneVillage Initiative: the working process and guides for the ICT4D in Africa and beyond." (Learning African Culture from Puppetry, UnityDrum Times)
It is no secret that the decade-long activities of the oneVillage Foundation are an expression of the personal interests of OVF founder Joy Tang. "...the last ten years which I have felt is my passion, it is my life - I would not really say it is my work, but I'm making one of my passions my work in my life." is how she chooses to describe what she has been doing for the last ten years (i.e. the time that OVF has been in operation) in a conversation with friend and fellow blogger Ulrike Reinhard published online. But how does the personal study of African Griot traditions, rooted in the spiritual beliefs and practices of the voodoo religion, by OVF's founder apply to the mission of a charity foundation that is raising funds for the development of poor rural communities in Africa?
In a presentation of the oneVillage Foundation "bike project" in Ghana, the OVF refers to Unity Drum as its "Social enterprise Incubation Program". Now the purpose of a business incubator - be it for so-called social enterprises that are committed to non-profit activities or for for-profit businesses - is to provide and assist with initial resources for start-up such as low-rent office facilities at the incubator center, access to networks and to various kinds of business expertise. Such incubators often spring from an academic institution and tend to be located in science parks or near university campuses.
As any business incubator facility knows, business incubation is a serious commitment. The start-up process for any business idea and entrepreneurial team is time-consuming and advice on managerial, financial and strategic issues will be heavily solicited. It is also a concept that is based on the geographical concentration of start-ups to the same physical location in order to create an inspiring and helpful environment for the founding teams. Furthermore, depending on the academic institution of their affiliation, these incubators are able to specialize in certain technologies thus providing access to in-depth expertise within specific fields and enabling recruitment of key people among alumni or academics.
OVF's social enterprise incubation program is presented as one of six tracks for a service and learning tour program (i.e. the volunteer program that is a partnership between OVF and the NTHU). This in itself raises questions about whether it is a commitment that the OVF takes seriously - provided that the OVF people understand the meaning of the term - or merely rhetoric? On its website, the link provided for further information about this program leads to the webpage of 1village, a consultancy business in Winneba run by OVF's head of Ghana Kafui A. Prebbie. Again, any distinctions between what is in fact the oneVillage Foundation's operations in Ghana and what is actually a consultancy firm with a most similar name run by one of OVF's main people is most confusing.
On another page of the OVF website, business incubation is included as one of the goals of its so-called Taiwan Bike Bike Ghana (TBBG) project:
"Set up a bike rental station in Cape Coast to be managed by the Unity Drum Cultural Group (OVF Social enterprise Incubation Program), to create employment for some unemployed members and create a income stream to fund the group’s operations"
It is most interesting to learn that OVF equates the provision of business incubation services with creating employment for members of a group of dancers and musicians/griots including its own staff and the close personal friend of OVF's founder, with the aim of providing them with a steady stream of income. This must imply that the group is not able to finance itself by performing. Whyever the financial support from funds raised by OVF to its own people would be called business incubation is very hard to understand, and raises serious doubts as to whether the OVF people are actually aware of the meaning of the numerous concepts that they profess to be implementing on their website. But even more seriously, it raises the question of who is in fact benefiting from the funds of this charity foundation? We strongly encourage the OVF to submit financial reports and official documentation from its more than ten years of operations that will allow for a transparent evaluation of its activities. This should be done for all geographical areas of operations, including Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Taiwan and the U.S.. We also recommend that the OVF clear its paperwork issues with all relevant authorities in the countries in which it operates.
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