hello Legos how far now today it really
feels good to be an African I can say I
really resonate with those words that
format resident album Becky of South
Africa said in the late 90s how many of
you relate and feel connected to that
saying that today it feels good to be an
African however I also do appreciate
that millions of Africans across this
continent do not necessarily feel that
way and I can relate to this because we
have seen hundreds of thousands of
Africans trekking through the Sahara
Desert getting on to North Africa
climbing onto boards trying to get into
Europe what about our sisters and their
Muslim sisters who up onto a plane land
somewhere in the Middle East hoping for
any job even if it is a made those
people they are brave because they are
willing to live everything and everyone
that they love to face a future that
they are really not sure about that is
glittering
in Europe and in the Middle East but
they are not quite sure what they get
and for sure all things that glitter are
not necessarily gold this is evidenced
by the thousands of Africans we have
lost in the Mediterranean Sea who have
died trying to get to Europe or the
hundreds of our sisters who have come
back home traumatized by this love like
conditions that they found themselves
living in in the Middle East including
sexual slavery however I don’t really
blame them why they would want to leave
Africa it’s amazing is I
it is when you look at the challenges
that Africa is facing they’re big and
they’re complex I mean we continue up to
today to talk about poverty I know for
policymakers it’s statistics and words
that they hear on their policy briefs
and in textbooks but for ordinary men
and women girls and boys it is their
lived reality it is the lack of
sanitation the lack of clean water the
lack of access to a hospital it is the
lack of food malnutrition it’s lived
what about the conflicts that continue
to abound in this continent I mean the
DRC war has been going on for how long
what about what’s happening even in this
country in the north the South Sudan
conflict that has been going on and in
these days if you are watching your news
you’ll be aware that there is a conflict
brewing in Cameroon so you can
understand why our young people and it’s
mostly young people would want to be
living Africa the other thing that makes
me realize that as Africans we’re lost
hope it’s because we look to others to
provide solutions for us for the things
we face on a day-in day-out basis yeah
we’ll look to elected leaders is there
so many of them I mean you would think
with the number of counselors members of
parliament senators presidency you would
think that with the number of elected
leaders we have in each country and in
this continent surely our problems will
be solved I mean these people come every
four or five years promise you roads
dams and roads and infrastructure bring
you new projects that really never come
I mean you guys are going to go through
that next year right
in Zimbabwe we have just gone through it
and with Bill promised bullets trains in
Kenya where I lived they went through
each last year and sometimes we actually
know deep in our hearts these people are
lying whoa but we still eat it and buy
it and no one that we then get
disappointed what about even looking to
donors we start looking to donors to
come and fund our initiatives in this
continent we go begging literally we do
to ask for money to fund our own
projects there are very few countries in
this continent that can fund just their
core budget never many developmental
projects that the budget for their
offices for their staff to work don’t
even talk about equals African Union
don’t even go there
and yet we actually want to stand here
and say Africa is free we are free from
colonial rule we’re free from Western
control come on it is the piper who the
one who pays the piper calls the tune so
I am not sure about this freedom that we
actually think we have I actually think
for us as ordinary people it is really
time as Africans we looked at our
situations and problems and chose to
change them and transform them ourselves
I think our history shows us actually
that we come from a history maybe not
this recent one of these leaders I’m
talking about but we come from a history
of a people who actually faced
colonialism and apartheid and did not
run away they chose to confront it and
to fight it and I think that spirit
lives in you and it lives in me so I’m a
strong believer of the power of one
because I believe that I can change the
world I really believe it and guess what
I also believe that you can change the
world and that you can change the world
however the power of one I think is also
quite limited because when you are by
yourself your efforts Lily can reach
only so much
when I look as has been said I’ve been
doing this work for over 17 years when I
look at defect that up to two terms to
saying women’s rights women’s rights
women’s participation in politics it’s
still not to the level what is supposed
to be never mind that for the last
couple of decades that’s the song we
have been saying it feels sometimes like
you know a person would leave saying I’m
going to go to that one state that is
five kilometers away they think I’m
gonna choke there they get on a
treadmill without realizing job for five
kilometres when the fat kilometer I’m a
key hit they say yes I have arrived and
then they look around themselves and
realize oops I’m still at the same place
so I want to propose an idea that I know
you and I are familiar to an idea that I
have been working with called collective
action I believe that when you and you
and you come together focus on working
on one issue and one agenda putting
together your thoughts your ideas your
skills your gifts your capacities and
your resources you really can make a
meaningful dent so collective action is
really just that a group of people who
come and collaborate and work together
to make a difference to what one
specific goal I’ve been working on this
for two years
but as I’ve been doing that I actually
realized him on this is like not a new
idea I saw this when I was growing up as
a little girl I grew up in a place
called him pop Alma in a city called
Bulawayo
in the beautiful country of Zimbabwe and
and in that neighborhood it was not a
neighborhood of people who a well-to-do
it was really working class to poor
people to be quite honest and the
challenge is that as you all know people
who live in those circumstances tend to
be actually quite a lot people didn’t
have a lot of money so when there was a
funerals if somebody passes away in our
culture when someone passes away all the
relatives and close friends
they’re pigs and come and pack it’s the
believed home until the deceased is
buried which will take three four days
huh but you know what it’s really nice
cause at least you have people
comforting you but my sister it’s very
costly it’s very comforting but it takes
a lot of money to cover that and the
women in our community recognize this
and they came up with a plan when they
decided to work together to pull their
resources together to help the family
that is believed so they would organize
themselves and would go to each family
and homestead in the neighborhood
collecting a cup of maize meal and which
makes a vision of your swallows we call
it Estrada in in Kenya where I live they
call it organic magnet of amazement and
they’ll also collect a bunch of green
vegetables which are what is popular for
most poor people that’s what they eat
and go around the neighbor by the time
they were finished they could even have
up to 50 200 kgs of mini-mill from a cup
from every person and for the 34 days
guess what all the mourners were fed and
as I grew up and became a leader in my
country working with others tools push
for a new constitution we started
actually calling this form of organizing
that I saw the women in my community
doing calling it coalition’s those of
you in the private sector in college
partnerships collaborations but it’s
really all the same idea of collective
action in Zimbabwe it is only when the
labor unions when the women’s movement
when the youth organizations came
together and put their energies together
under one umbrella what we call the
national constitutional assemble and
pushed for one one ask we want a people
driven Constitution did we push the
Mugabe regime until he faced the first
election he ever lost and actually
considered in the year 2000 when we did
the constitutional
now I know at that time we didn’t really
manage to get rid of Mugabe we now have
however
mukada honestly was never the same
because that’s the time when all that
land nonsense happened and the rest is
history but also what I can tell you is
we pushed the democratic project for
Zimbabwe to a new level and it was
really never ever the same so I have
seen the power of people coming together
and transform their situations in their
context is um I I want to share
something and it’s made more meaningful
and put a spotlight on Kofi Annan who
have just had passed away today he was
in Zimbabwe last year just before our
elections and there’s something that he
said that was really powerful and I
carried it with me so I actually
prepared this without even knowing that
of course this was gonna happen
Kofi Annan said to us in Zimbabwe last
year when the leaders failed to lead let
the people lead and the leaders follow
it is a powerful concept because I
actually saw it happen last year when I
started working with a group of people
from South Sudan South Sudan is a
country that is currently going through
war and it has been actually in war for
over 50 years the Southern Isles with
the north if you know your history but
when they finally attained independence
in 2011 we actually thought South Sudan
and the newest country in Africa has
just about made it the the the people of
South Sudan the war is really based on a
lot of differences that as Africans
actually think we related we all know
now the issues around try and look at
what’s in in society and in community
but the civil society leaders the social
entrepreneurs that I actually was
working with last year were willing to
put aside their differences were willing
to overlook the fate of that I might
look at you
no the Neue from this tribe and not like
you but right now South Sudan is more
important than my dislike for you when
they realize that the peace process the
peace that they thought they had gained
in 2011 which they lost in 2013 because
then 2013 they went into war when the
leaders got together in 2015 centerpiece
agreement but then six months later they
decided to go back into or again so in
2016 there was an impasse and people
were being killed they decided to come
together and work collectively and push
for a peace process
so that they could see their country get
to peace again
it was through the work of this civil
society leaders social entrepreneurs
people didn’t have the positions who
didn’t have guns – first people to the
table who moved through collective
action and catalyzed the process that
fought the leaders of the egad regime to
put the peace agenda back on the table
as we speak in a few weeks the South
Sudan leaders will be signing a peace
agreement that they’ve already
considered to an agreement so it is
possible that ordinary people can
actually affect change it doesn’t have
to be a big agenda like stopping a war
although we actually can’t do that it
doesn’t have to be a big agenda like
fighting corruption although we can
actually do that it could even be maybe
just dealing with the portals in front
of your road if you all realize this
it’s an endemic problem across Africa
but through collective action with your
neighbors you can actually tackle that
challenge and maybe start small and
maybe start there but one thing for sure
that I am confident about today is that
when you my brother and you my sister
and you choose to come together when
collaboratively
focusing on one specific issue you
really have the ability to change Legos
to change Nigeria
and to change Africa thank you [Applause]
feels good to be an African I can say I
really resonate with those words that
format resident album Becky of South
Africa said in the late 90s how many of
you relate and feel connected to that
saying that today it feels good to be an
African however I also do appreciate
that millions of Africans across this
continent do not necessarily feel that
way and I can relate to this because we
have seen hundreds of thousands of
Africans trekking through the Sahara
Desert getting on to North Africa
climbing onto boards trying to get into
Europe what about our sisters and their
Muslim sisters who up onto a plane land
somewhere in the Middle East hoping for
any job even if it is a made those
people they are brave because they are
willing to live everything and everyone
that they love to face a future that
they are really not sure about that is
glittering
in Europe and in the Middle East but
they are not quite sure what they get
and for sure all things that glitter are
not necessarily gold this is evidenced
by the thousands of Africans we have
lost in the Mediterranean Sea who have
died trying to get to Europe or the
hundreds of our sisters who have come
back home traumatized by this love like
conditions that they found themselves
living in in the Middle East including
sexual slavery however I don’t really
blame them why they would want to leave
Africa it’s amazing is I
it is when you look at the challenges
that Africa is facing they’re big and
they’re complex I mean we continue up to
today to talk about poverty I know for
policymakers it’s statistics and words
that they hear on their policy briefs
and in textbooks but for ordinary men
and women girls and boys it is their
lived reality it is the lack of
sanitation the lack of clean water the
lack of access to a hospital it is the
lack of food malnutrition it’s lived
what about the conflicts that continue
to abound in this continent I mean the
DRC war has been going on for how long
what about what’s happening even in this
country in the north the South Sudan
conflict that has been going on and in
these days if you are watching your news
you’ll be aware that there is a conflict
brewing in Cameroon so you can
understand why our young people and it’s
mostly young people would want to be
living Africa the other thing that makes
me realize that as Africans we’re lost
hope it’s because we look to others to
provide solutions for us for the things
we face on a day-in day-out basis yeah
we’ll look to elected leaders is there
so many of them I mean you would think
with the number of counselors members of
parliament senators presidency you would
think that with the number of elected
leaders we have in each country and in
this continent surely our problems will
be solved I mean these people come every
four or five years promise you roads
dams and roads and infrastructure bring
you new projects that really never come
I mean you guys are going to go through
that next year right
in Zimbabwe we have just gone through it
and with Bill promised bullets trains in
Kenya where I lived they went through
each last year and sometimes we actually
know deep in our hearts these people are
lying whoa but we still eat it and buy
it and no one that we then get
disappointed what about even looking to
donors we start looking to donors to
come and fund our initiatives in this
continent we go begging literally we do
to ask for money to fund our own
projects there are very few countries in
this continent that can fund just their
core budget never many developmental
projects that the budget for their
offices for their staff to work don’t
even talk about equals African Union
don’t even go there
and yet we actually want to stand here
and say Africa is free we are free from
colonial rule we’re free from Western
control come on it is the piper who the
one who pays the piper calls the tune so
I am not sure about this freedom that we
actually think we have I actually think
for us as ordinary people it is really
time as Africans we looked at our
situations and problems and chose to
change them and transform them ourselves
I think our history shows us actually
that we come from a history maybe not
this recent one of these leaders I’m
talking about but we come from a history
of a people who actually faced
colonialism and apartheid and did not
run away they chose to confront it and
to fight it and I think that spirit
lives in you and it lives in me so I’m a
strong believer of the power of one
because I believe that I can change the
world I really believe it and guess what
I also believe that you can change the
world and that you can change the world
however the power of one I think is also
quite limited because when you are by
yourself your efforts Lily can reach
only so much
when I look as has been said I’ve been
doing this work for over 17 years when I
look at defect that up to two terms to
saying women’s rights women’s rights
women’s participation in politics it’s
still not to the level what is supposed
to be never mind that for the last
couple of decades that’s the song we
have been saying it feels sometimes like
you know a person would leave saying I’m
going to go to that one state that is
five kilometers away they think I’m
gonna choke there they get on a
treadmill without realizing job for five
kilometres when the fat kilometer I’m a
key hit they say yes I have arrived and
then they look around themselves and
realize oops I’m still at the same place
so I want to propose an idea that I know
you and I are familiar to an idea that I
have been working with called collective
action I believe that when you and you
and you come together focus on working
on one issue and one agenda putting
together your thoughts your ideas your
skills your gifts your capacities and
your resources you really can make a
meaningful dent so collective action is
really just that a group of people who
come and collaborate and work together
to make a difference to what one
specific goal I’ve been working on this
for two years
but as I’ve been doing that I actually
realized him on this is like not a new
idea I saw this when I was growing up as
a little girl I grew up in a place
called him pop Alma in a city called
Bulawayo
in the beautiful country of Zimbabwe and
and in that neighborhood it was not a
neighborhood of people who a well-to-do
it was really working class to poor
people to be quite honest and the
challenge is that as you all know people
who live in those circumstances tend to
be actually quite a lot people didn’t
have a lot of money so when there was a
funerals if somebody passes away in our
culture when someone passes away all the
relatives and close friends
they’re pigs and come and pack it’s the
believed home until the deceased is
buried which will take three four days
huh but you know what it’s really nice
cause at least you have people
comforting you but my sister it’s very
costly it’s very comforting but it takes
a lot of money to cover that and the
women in our community recognize this
and they came up with a plan when they
decided to work together to pull their
resources together to help the family
that is believed so they would organize
themselves and would go to each family
and homestead in the neighborhood
collecting a cup of maize meal and which
makes a vision of your swallows we call
it Estrada in in Kenya where I live they
call it organic magnet of amazement and
they’ll also collect a bunch of green
vegetables which are what is popular for
most poor people that’s what they eat
and go around the neighbor by the time
they were finished they could even have
up to 50 200 kgs of mini-mill from a cup
from every person and for the 34 days
guess what all the mourners were fed and
as I grew up and became a leader in my
country working with others tools push
for a new constitution we started
actually calling this form of organizing
that I saw the women in my community
doing calling it coalition’s those of
you in the private sector in college
partnerships collaborations but it’s
really all the same idea of collective
action in Zimbabwe it is only when the
labor unions when the women’s movement
when the youth organizations came
together and put their energies together
under one umbrella what we call the
national constitutional assemble and
pushed for one one ask we want a people
driven Constitution did we push the
Mugabe regime until he faced the first
election he ever lost and actually
considered in the year 2000 when we did
the constitutional
now I know at that time we didn’t really
manage to get rid of Mugabe we now have
however
mukada honestly was never the same
because that’s the time when all that
land nonsense happened and the rest is
history but also what I can tell you is
we pushed the democratic project for
Zimbabwe to a new level and it was
really never ever the same so I have
seen the power of people coming together
and transform their situations in their
context is um I I want to share
something and it’s made more meaningful
and put a spotlight on Kofi Annan who
have just had passed away today he was
in Zimbabwe last year just before our
elections and there’s something that he
said that was really powerful and I
carried it with me so I actually
prepared this without even knowing that
of course this was gonna happen
Kofi Annan said to us in Zimbabwe last
year when the leaders failed to lead let
the people lead and the leaders follow
it is a powerful concept because I
actually saw it happen last year when I
started working with a group of people
from South Sudan South Sudan is a
country that is currently going through
war and it has been actually in war for
over 50 years the Southern Isles with
the north if you know your history but
when they finally attained independence
in 2011 we actually thought South Sudan
and the newest country in Africa has
just about made it the the the people of
South Sudan the war is really based on a
lot of differences that as Africans
actually think we related we all know
now the issues around try and look at
what’s in in society and in community
but the civil society leaders the social
entrepreneurs that I actually was
working with last year were willing to
put aside their differences were willing
to overlook the fate of that I might
look at you
no the Neue from this tribe and not like
you but right now South Sudan is more
important than my dislike for you when
they realize that the peace process the
peace that they thought they had gained
in 2011 which they lost in 2013 because
then 2013 they went into war when the
leaders got together in 2015 centerpiece
agreement but then six months later they
decided to go back into or again so in
2016 there was an impasse and people
were being killed they decided to come
together and work collectively and push
for a peace process
so that they could see their country get
to peace again
it was through the work of this civil
society leaders social entrepreneurs
people didn’t have the positions who
didn’t have guns – first people to the
table who moved through collective
action and catalyzed the process that
fought the leaders of the egad regime to
put the peace agenda back on the table
as we speak in a few weeks the South
Sudan leaders will be signing a peace
agreement that they’ve already
considered to an agreement so it is
possible that ordinary people can
actually affect change it doesn’t have
to be a big agenda like stopping a war
although we actually can’t do that it
doesn’t have to be a big agenda like
fighting corruption although we can
actually do that it could even be maybe
just dealing with the portals in front
of your road if you all realize this
it’s an endemic problem across Africa
but through collective action with your
neighbors you can actually tackle that
challenge and maybe start small and
maybe start there but one thing for sure
that I am confident about today is that
when you my brother and you my sister
and you choose to come together when
collaboratively
focusing on one specific issue you
really have the ability to change Legos
to change Nigeria
and to change Africa thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: