[Music]
Sankara 33 claudette colvin 15 Nelson
Mandela 26 Quinn zynga of mondongo 38
kwame nkrumah 21 these are the names of
some of my personal heroes of African
descent heroes who at these very young
ages embarked on their incredible
journeys of change making despite the
assurance of risk to life to security to
comfort these young men and women
harnessed their fears and stepped into
the gap to create the future that they
preferred we know from their stories
that they could have run away in search
of easier realities somewhere else but
instead these heroes searched for
something else they searched for courage
today I am here to make the case that
Africa does not in fact have a
leadership crisis to say so would be to
assert against historical evidence that
it has ever the older leader who is the
protagonist of change he or she seldom
is accumulated self-interest ties to
promises long made a lack of energy make
it very difficult for the older leader
to be the change maker know our issue is
not a crisis of leadership what Africa
is actually suffering from is the lack
of a critical mass of courageous
youth
my work of the leadership practitioner
sees me engaging with the personal
stories of our emerging leaders their
desires their hopes their frustrations
and while I encounter some incredible
leaders with Drive and energy what
intrigues me the most about the majority
of us is our curious entanglement with
comfort our insistence that I could do a
little bit more but it is inconvenient
to my current state of affairs you see
my young family my career my income my
security essentially my comfort two
years ago I decided to resign from a
lucrative role at an American Ivy League
and return to my ailing country of
Zimbabwe everyone I know said I was
barking mad to even consider such a
thing they told me I was going to waste
my youth a close friend of mine advised
me stay in America for a few more years
until you at least get a green card his
words you will need it for a rainy day
Africa always has a rainy day I rejected
that option and everyone agreed that I
had courage courage that ability to take
tough decisions and take tough actions
precisely when it is most difficult to
do so you see my country at the time and
still is plagued with political
instability and economic decline power
shortages water rationing limited career
opportunities a declining health system
even monopoly money these are the issues
of the day the 15 years that I had
enjoyed enjoying the comfort Sri of the
different countries that I’d lived in
the UK the u.s. and South Africa
were really 15 years where I was
avoiding the big elephant in the room
like many of my peers I wanted to go
back home one day but only when things
got better then slowly but surely that
question that I’m sure plagues you once
in a while
became louder and unbearable in my head
whose responsibility was it to make it
better and I started to feel guilty so
here I finally was home eager to make a
difference but not naive to the issues I
was likely to face when I landed in our
small airport and made my way into my
brother-in-law’s car my nephew who was
16 at the time said something that
rattled me he said welcome to the land
where nothing works auntie you’re crazy
for coming back my heart made its way to
my throat and I started to wonder if I
had indeed made a mistake once the
smooth stretch of airport road was
finished and we started to hit pothole
after pothole and I took in the
declining state of the infrastructure in
my country the torn flags barely hanging
from bendy poles and the old paint that
was on its last legs I had to admit that
in that moment more than courage I felt
anxious I felt alone and I felt helpless
what did I really think I was gonna do
to make a difference who did I think I
was what delusions of grandeur was I
harboring and to be honest in that
moment I did think what was I thinking
leaving the u.s. without that damn green
card the anxiety was quickly followed by
anger and blame what had they done to
the country when would they wake up to
this state of decline and would they
actually give youth like myself a chance
to self actualize the words my nephew
spoke and the emotions I felt afterwards
characterized for me what I think is
wrong with the spirit of youth
in the 21st century the sense of
resignation and fatalism when it comes
to strategically addressing the issues
on the continent
there’s always their fault they the
politicians they the colonialists they
the multilateral they the institution’s
but never us never our lack of real
engagement never our half-measures never
our tendency to run away and blame never
our lack of courage to do the thing we
know we should be doing building towards
what is rightfully ours in Kasana Moyo
arguably Africa’s foremost thought
leader makes the point that invention
imagination and innovation belong to the
young and yet even the youngest amongst
us like my nephew is paralyzed by a
sense of powerlessness in the face of
old power and old systems we lack
courage we run away we complain we
intellectualize we even toy toy our
anger makes us reactionary we seldom
actually make the decision to
strategically build towards what we
believe we deserve different to these
heroes who understood that youth was
perhaps their greatest asset we guard
our youth selfishly so as not to
experience any inconvenience or danger
Steve Bantu Biko at only 26 started the
black people’s convention to promote the
ideas of black consciousness which
remained central to black identity to
this day putting his life on the line
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at only 34 gave
the speech that called out liberius
corporations and their non patriotic
approach to business and development
putting her career on the line Martin
Luther King at only 26 became president
of the Montgomery Improvement
Association and organized a 13-month bus
boycott not just a
toy boy that would see to the end of
segregation on buses in Montgomery later
losing his life for his convictions Alec
Oh Dan gotta at only 20 years old
started the entrepreneurial journey that
would make him Africa’s richest man but
also the 67th richest person in the
world when I met him in 2013 he told me
he hadn’t taken a vacation for 12 years
these men and women displayed courage in
daring to not only imagine but to act on
their convictions of what was right for
the time in which they lived they and
others like them did not worry that by
taking the difficult path they would not
be able to live a luxurious lifestyle it
seems to many of us that the African
dream is to have the right address the
right car the right clothes and holidays
and to broadcast them on social media
with just the right selfie or video our
predecessors actually faced real
uncertainty they faced arrest
they even faced death my work as an
ontological coach has taught me three
critical insights for cultivating
courage so I would want to offer these
insights to you as an invitation to live
your life courageously in this
particular historical moment where
African needs us the most first we have
to cultivate different thought and
emotional patterns we don’t teach
emotions in schools and sell them in our
MBAs and yet emotions are the final
drivers towards actions our actions are
determined by how we feel and how we
feel is determined by what we think on a
day to day basis the challenge I
encounter with the young leaders I work
with is that they are stuck in two
equally arresting thought patterns one
says that history and the world have
done us wrong and that we remain victims
of a colonial past and more recently
victims of current leadership in other
words we are owed something by these
people who have done us wrong
the other is of an inflated idea of an
Africa rising that is informed more by
GDP figures and less by the lived
experience of the average African both
are problematic the first thought
pattern cultivates emotions of anger
resentment and entitlement dangerous
because we know that while these
emotions feel powerful at a vibrational
level they’re actually paralyzing and
limiting the second thought pattern
tends to create emotions of euphoria
equally dangerous because they’re not
grounded in present reality the
intermediary emotion between these two
extremes courage is the grounding
emotion that launches the higher ranking
emotions of reason resilience and then
enlightenment with courage we can begin
to look head-on at the fact that our
growth remains none inclusive and that
the Africa rising story is the story of
an elite few and not of the deprived
many we can take a look at the fact that
we keep voting septuagenarians into
power despite being in the youngest
population in the world we can look at
the fact that we continue to preserve
the sovereignty of small and sustainable
nations instead of harnessing the power
of our pan-african ideal and the fact
that just as we miss the Industrial
Revolution it actually looks like we may
miss the technological one too as long
as we refuse to confront the issues as
they are with courage we will continue
to cultivate the wrong emotions and
therefore create second best solutions
to our challenges despite the in
justices of the past no one owes us
anything and despite the future of the
promise we are not of the promise of the
future we are not yet there
courage as an emotion will allow us to
look at these things head-on
secondly we need to clearly articulate
what we are willing to risk a defining
element of courage is that despite the
fear you feel you choose to put
something at risk in order to have an
impact often we want to talk about what
we stand to gain when change happens but
seldom what we stand to lose the reality
check of what I could lose is precisely
what makes courage so difficult the
question we need to start asking
ourselves as young people is what do I
choose right now to forego so that I can
experience in the future what I deserve
what the people of my continent
deserve this is what our liberation
leaders have over us and keep holding
over our heads they were willing to lose
something and often we are not it was
Jeff Kennedy who said ask not what your
country can do for you but what you can
do for your country when was the last
time you risk something with the
conscious mindset that you were doing it
for your country
think about it when was the last time
you risked something with the conscious
mind said that you were doing it for
your continent it’s a step that we
cannot miss if we are to create change
and finally step three we need to go
beyond protest and Toit oil and harness
the power of technology information and
networks to build the institutions and
infrastructure that speak to our ideals
protest is a useful tool yes but it is
not the most powerful organization is
more powerful collaboration across
borders is much more sustainable
building excellent systems that dislodge
old irrelevant ones is true revolution
the story of William Kumpf Amba opened
up a realm of possibilities for us as
young people if a boy in a poor village
in Malawi
only age 40 could change the destiny of
his village using only two books and
scrap material from a rubbish dump
to build power generating and water
generating windmills then what excuse do
we have emotional expert Richard
asourian illustrates that the outcome of
acting courageously is that often
something new is created this is a
critical point er for us as African
youth if the energy we are exerting is
not creating something new but is used
largely to complain and protest against
old institutions then we are in fact not
being courageous
we’re being passive-aggressive when you
exist in an emotional energy of anger
and protest all the time you’re likely
on what ontology is call a downward
spiral and very far from creativity
passion or innovation so don’t be
seduced protesting and toy toying alone
and not good indicators for a society’s
ability to move upwards what you fight
only strengthens what you resist
persists but when you build when you
create when you birth a new reality into
humanity’s consciousness now that is
powerful
graça Machel 28 Ruth first 21 dennis
goldberg 28 patrice lumumba 33 fred swan
iike 18 Ahmed Kathrada 12 CS Lewis
stated that parish is not simply one of
the virtues but the form of every virtue
at the testing point the 21st century
will be Africa’s greatest test what we
become will be dependent on whether we
as African youth starts to understand
that the burden is upon us to live our
lives with courage and perhaps to even
lose them with courage the next time you
find yourself complaining about the
state of our continent the next time you
find yourself resigning to the status
quo the next time you start looking for
a way out or for an easy Avenue remember
this life shrinks and expands in
proportion to the courage that you are
willing to cultivate our crisis is not a
crisis of leadership our crisis is a
crisis of youth in danger of never
knowing the power of their courage I
thank
[Applause]
[Music]
Sankara 33 claudette colvin 15 Nelson
Mandela 26 Quinn zynga of mondongo 38
kwame nkrumah 21 these are the names of
some of my personal heroes of African
descent heroes who at these very young
ages embarked on their incredible
journeys of change making despite the
assurance of risk to life to security to
comfort these young men and women
harnessed their fears and stepped into
the gap to create the future that they
preferred we know from their stories
that they could have run away in search
of easier realities somewhere else but
instead these heroes searched for
something else they searched for courage
today I am here to make the case that
Africa does not in fact have a
leadership crisis to say so would be to
assert against historical evidence that
it has ever the older leader who is the
protagonist of change he or she seldom
is accumulated self-interest ties to
promises long made a lack of energy make
it very difficult for the older leader
to be the change maker know our issue is
not a crisis of leadership what Africa
is actually suffering from is the lack
of a critical mass of courageous
youth
my work of the leadership practitioner
sees me engaging with the personal
stories of our emerging leaders their
desires their hopes their frustrations
and while I encounter some incredible
leaders with Drive and energy what
intrigues me the most about the majority
of us is our curious entanglement with
comfort our insistence that I could do a
little bit more but it is inconvenient
to my current state of affairs you see
my young family my career my income my
security essentially my comfort two
years ago I decided to resign from a
lucrative role at an American Ivy League
and return to my ailing country of
Zimbabwe everyone I know said I was
barking mad to even consider such a
thing they told me I was going to waste
my youth a close friend of mine advised
me stay in America for a few more years
until you at least get a green card his
words you will need it for a rainy day
Africa always has a rainy day I rejected
that option and everyone agreed that I
had courage courage that ability to take
tough decisions and take tough actions
precisely when it is most difficult to
do so you see my country at the time and
still is plagued with political
instability and economic decline power
shortages water rationing limited career
opportunities a declining health system
even monopoly money these are the issues
of the day the 15 years that I had
enjoyed enjoying the comfort Sri of the
different countries that I’d lived in
the UK the u.s. and South Africa
were really 15 years where I was
avoiding the big elephant in the room
like many of my peers I wanted to go
back home one day but only when things
got better then slowly but surely that
question that I’m sure plagues you once
in a while
became louder and unbearable in my head
whose responsibility was it to make it
better and I started to feel guilty so
here I finally was home eager to make a
difference but not naive to the issues I
was likely to face when I landed in our
small airport and made my way into my
brother-in-law’s car my nephew who was
16 at the time said something that
rattled me he said welcome to the land
where nothing works auntie you’re crazy
for coming back my heart made its way to
my throat and I started to wonder if I
had indeed made a mistake once the
smooth stretch of airport road was
finished and we started to hit pothole
after pothole and I took in the
declining state of the infrastructure in
my country the torn flags barely hanging
from bendy poles and the old paint that
was on its last legs I had to admit that
in that moment more than courage I felt
anxious I felt alone and I felt helpless
what did I really think I was gonna do
to make a difference who did I think I
was what delusions of grandeur was I
harboring and to be honest in that
moment I did think what was I thinking
leaving the u.s. without that damn green
card the anxiety was quickly followed by
anger and blame what had they done to
the country when would they wake up to
this state of decline and would they
actually give youth like myself a chance
to self actualize the words my nephew
spoke and the emotions I felt afterwards
characterized for me what I think is
wrong with the spirit of youth
in the 21st century the sense of
resignation and fatalism when it comes
to strategically addressing the issues
on the continent
there’s always their fault they the
politicians they the colonialists they
the multilateral they the institution’s
but never us never our lack of real
engagement never our half-measures never
our tendency to run away and blame never
our lack of courage to do the thing we
know we should be doing building towards
what is rightfully ours in Kasana Moyo
arguably Africa’s foremost thought
leader makes the point that invention
imagination and innovation belong to the
young and yet even the youngest amongst
us like my nephew is paralyzed by a
sense of powerlessness in the face of
old power and old systems we lack
courage we run away we complain we
intellectualize we even toy toy our
anger makes us reactionary we seldom
actually make the decision to
strategically build towards what we
believe we deserve different to these
heroes who understood that youth was
perhaps their greatest asset we guard
our youth selfishly so as not to
experience any inconvenience or danger
Steve Bantu Biko at only 26 started the
black people’s convention to promote the
ideas of black consciousness which
remained central to black identity to
this day putting his life on the line
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at only 34 gave
the speech that called out liberius
corporations and their non patriotic
approach to business and development
putting her career on the line Martin
Luther King at only 26 became president
of the Montgomery Improvement
Association and organized a 13-month bus
boycott not just a
toy boy that would see to the end of
segregation on buses in Montgomery later
losing his life for his convictions Alec
Oh Dan gotta at only 20 years old
started the entrepreneurial journey that
would make him Africa’s richest man but
also the 67th richest person in the
world when I met him in 2013 he told me
he hadn’t taken a vacation for 12 years
these men and women displayed courage in
daring to not only imagine but to act on
their convictions of what was right for
the time in which they lived they and
others like them did not worry that by
taking the difficult path they would not
be able to live a luxurious lifestyle it
seems to many of us that the African
dream is to have the right address the
right car the right clothes and holidays
and to broadcast them on social media
with just the right selfie or video our
predecessors actually faced real
uncertainty they faced arrest
they even faced death my work as an
ontological coach has taught me three
critical insights for cultivating
courage so I would want to offer these
insights to you as an invitation to live
your life courageously in this
particular historical moment where
African needs us the most first we have
to cultivate different thought and
emotional patterns we don’t teach
emotions in schools and sell them in our
MBAs and yet emotions are the final
drivers towards actions our actions are
determined by how we feel and how we
feel is determined by what we think on a
day to day basis the challenge I
encounter with the young leaders I work
with is that they are stuck in two
equally arresting thought patterns one
says that history and the world have
done us wrong and that we remain victims
of a colonial past and more recently
victims of current leadership in other
words we are owed something by these
people who have done us wrong
the other is of an inflated idea of an
Africa rising that is informed more by
GDP figures and less by the lived
experience of the average African both
are problematic the first thought
pattern cultivates emotions of anger
resentment and entitlement dangerous
because we know that while these
emotions feel powerful at a vibrational
level they’re actually paralyzing and
limiting the second thought pattern
tends to create emotions of euphoria
equally dangerous because they’re not
grounded in present reality the
intermediary emotion between these two
extremes courage is the grounding
emotion that launches the higher ranking
emotions of reason resilience and then
enlightenment with courage we can begin
to look head-on at the fact that our
growth remains none inclusive and that
the Africa rising story is the story of
an elite few and not of the deprived
many we can take a look at the fact that
we keep voting septuagenarians into
power despite being in the youngest
population in the world we can look at
the fact that we continue to preserve
the sovereignty of small and sustainable
nations instead of harnessing the power
of our pan-african ideal and the fact
that just as we miss the Industrial
Revolution it actually looks like we may
miss the technological one too as long
as we refuse to confront the issues as
they are with courage we will continue
to cultivate the wrong emotions and
therefore create second best solutions
to our challenges despite the in
justices of the past no one owes us
anything and despite the future of the
promise we are not of the promise of the
future we are not yet there
courage as an emotion will allow us to
look at these things head-on
secondly we need to clearly articulate
what we are willing to risk a defining
element of courage is that despite the
fear you feel you choose to put
something at risk in order to have an
impact often we want to talk about what
we stand to gain when change happens but
seldom what we stand to lose the reality
check of what I could lose is precisely
what makes courage so difficult the
question we need to start asking
ourselves as young people is what do I
choose right now to forego so that I can
experience in the future what I deserve
what the people of my continent
deserve this is what our liberation
leaders have over us and keep holding
over our heads they were willing to lose
something and often we are not it was
Jeff Kennedy who said ask not what your
country can do for you but what you can
do for your country when was the last
time you risk something with the
conscious mindset that you were doing it
for your country
think about it when was the last time
you risked something with the conscious
mind said that you were doing it for
your continent it’s a step that we
cannot miss if we are to create change
and finally step three we need to go
beyond protest and Toit oil and harness
the power of technology information and
networks to build the institutions and
infrastructure that speak to our ideals
protest is a useful tool yes but it is
not the most powerful organization is
more powerful collaboration across
borders is much more sustainable
building excellent systems that dislodge
old irrelevant ones is true revolution
the story of William Kumpf Amba opened
up a realm of possibilities for us as
young people if a boy in a poor village
in Malawi
only age 40 could change the destiny of
his village using only two books and
scrap material from a rubbish dump
to build power generating and water
generating windmills then what excuse do
we have emotional expert Richard
asourian illustrates that the outcome of
acting courageously is that often
something new is created this is a
critical point er for us as African
youth if the energy we are exerting is
not creating something new but is used
largely to complain and protest against
old institutions then we are in fact not
being courageous
we’re being passive-aggressive when you
exist in an emotional energy of anger
and protest all the time you’re likely
on what ontology is call a downward
spiral and very far from creativity
passion or innovation so don’t be
seduced protesting and toy toying alone
and not good indicators for a society’s
ability to move upwards what you fight
only strengthens what you resist
persists but when you build when you
create when you birth a new reality into
humanity’s consciousness now that is
powerful
graça Machel 28 Ruth first 21 dennis
goldberg 28 patrice lumumba 33 fred swan
iike 18 Ahmed Kathrada 12 CS Lewis
stated that parish is not simply one of
the virtues but the form of every virtue
at the testing point the 21st century
will be Africa’s greatest test what we
become will be dependent on whether we
as African youth starts to understand
that the burden is upon us to live our
lives with courage and perhaps to even
lose them with courage the next time you
find yourself complaining about the
state of our continent the next time you
find yourself resigning to the status
quo the next time you start looking for
a way out or for an easy Avenue remember
this life shrinks and expands in
proportion to the courage that you are
willing to cultivate our crisis is not a
crisis of leadership our crisis is a
crisis of youth in danger of never
knowing the power of their courage I
thank
[Applause]
[Music]
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