yes I’m honored to be here it’s good to
be asked to be on this red carpet my
topic today is context is freedom
basically we’re gonna talk about how we
frame ourselves as Africans how we see
ourselves as Africans omastar was a Star
Trek fan I grew up watching Captain
jean-luc Picard boldly going where no
one has gone before
and it was nice to see the opportunity
of maybe as human beings being able to
discover other worlds and discover other
people so even as I grew older I began
downloading as every kenyan does or
buying episodes of the oldest a trek the
Spock and Kirk generation so I was
really happy when Netflix decided to
reboot it and they now have a Star Trek
reboot 2017 reboot that’s going on right
now I’m an avid fan but my favorite line
in that reboot is you chose to do the
right thing above what was sanctioned
that’s the kind of thinking that wins
was the kind of thinking that I need
next to me because universal law is for
Lackey’s context is for kings when I was
thinking of what I wanted to say I was
watching Star Trek and I realized that’s
exactly where my heart lies in that how
do we frame ourselves it is good that
content is king but what about context
in 2014 the IMF came up with a workshop
that they called Africa rising and ever
since then Africa has been raising in
every sphere in tech in agriculture in
media production which are mean
everything is Africa rising Africa
rising the Dark Continent Hazari nations
finally there’s a light shining on us to
show what we are doing rather than what
we are known for which is mostly
corruption being a war disease
but then I still don’t know if people
are really thinking about it in the same
value of context as a documentary and co
and conservation photographer the key
thing that I focus on and the people I
work with focus on is being able to
marry the right moment in time within
it’s the right context as a result we’ve
been able to put out content out there
where people are proud of when they see
Kenya when they see Africa because right
now we are not just showing Africa in
the right lights but also showing it
within the right context yes we have
disease yes we have death yes we have
corruption but I don’t think it makes us
any less proud of who we are instead of
it being the either/or of some of the
speakers here have said it is the end
and so the reason I speak about context
is because context frames content you
cannot produce content by itself and the
worst of itself be divorced of context
and expect people to be able to
understand what it is you’re saying I
came across this the first time in 2007
I was shooting in Kibera right before
the election the famous election
happened in Kenya and two rival
communities had come together to build
bio latrines to be able to enable the
people within the communities to have a
safe place to go and do their business
yet at the same time be able to generate
energy needed for cooking so I did this
project for nearly two months and at one
point I stopped to take a photo of a
child who had sat down now this child
was tired since the community didn’t
have people to come and do the building
they were building these latrines
themselves so everybody chipped in the
kids helped with clearing the sites the
women helped bringing in the stones and
the cement and the men put together
everything and built the structure so
this child was tired he had carried
stones the whole morning he had cleared
the place of sticks and of logs and he
sat down and I took a photo of this
child and
laughter at some point I posted it
somewhere and someone I knew came and
said oh it’s the typical Kabira story a
child looking sad sitting looking into
the distance and I said no he’s not sad
he’s tired but we kept going back and
forth over what this child was doing is
he sad is he tired and I took that home
with me because I realized that I had
misrepresented this child and so that
things stuck in my mind for a long time
because I kept asking myself how can I
do this better how can I show our people
one with dignity but to in a realistic
way that’s when I learned about context
I realized that we cannot divorce our
subs as content creators we cannot
divorce our subject from his ecosystem
we have to be able to find a way to
include the two of them within the
content we are producing therefore be
able to have a realistic image of who
hears our people now the people who have
done this very well is the United States
of America they produce content in a way
that makes you want to go to America
everybody here grew up at a time or was
alive at a time when people are going to
the States everybody is going to study
or to look for a job to become a nanny
to watch old people everyone was going
to the States to do something and it was
sad because I remember somebody telling
me why are people going to the States
when they have lives back here and I
realize it’s because of the content that
were producing we all saw how America
was saving the world from an English or
Asian or a Russian in some cinematic
style being able to shoot all the thugs
in one with one shot and save the world
but that is how they show their country
and therefore people are proud to be
called Americans or want to be called
Americans there’s a whole exodus of
Africans from all over the continent
going to America to try to live this
American dream because we content
creators or rather their content
creators have shown America in a
different light why are we not doing the
same for us in Africa
content makes people consume what it is
that your context make people produce
the con consume the content you’re
producing in the way that you want them
to see it but then in Africa what has
happened is our politicians or our
authoritarians have stifled the
production of content and therefore been
able to regulate even how we view
ourselves and in the context that we
view ourselves as a result we only
believe ourselves through a single story
or a single lens and we all know the
dangers of a single story we either are
this community or we had that community
versus this community and there’s
nothing else in between hence we are
always at war we’re always fighting
always killing each other because of a
single narrative yet if we knew
everything in context I think would be
able to question why we’re actually
doing what we’re doing but this is not
their fault it’s actually who are taught
this by the British the colonialists
came and told us that we were meant for
one thing to be subjects and we believed
them but then the British also made two
mistakes one is they made us go to war
for them it is said of a hundred and
sixty thousand Africans went to war for
the British was they did not even
understand my own grandfather went to
Burma I don’t think he had been beyond
his village before that and he
fourteen-hour against an enemy he didn’t
understand Japanese how do you take a
lui a man to go and fight Japanese
doesn’t make sense but then he came back
and he came back with stories of how
this white man is actually a weak man
that he is afraid of the changes in
weather
he gets the Sun beats him so hard that
he is unable to you know to hide to
fight with every other person he runs to
the back when he tells the other
Africans to go and fight the changes in
in climate also affect him very
significantly than the other Africans
because he’s not too used to a tropical
climate therefore he is not always
available so the Africans have to
command themselves most of the time
thirdly he is also very sensitive to
changes in
like the insect so in sickness he gets
malaria very easily when we Africans had
a bit of an advantage so they began
demystifying this demigod that we had
called the colonialist then in the 50s
Africans again went to school they
studied the land about things like
freedom democracy they began knowing
that they actually had they had the
right to be a people Martin Luther
actually said Martin Luther the third
actually said that the Negro began
knowing that he was somebody and that
began planting the seeds in the seedbed
of Independence and self-rule we began
knowing that we as a people can actually
rule ourselves so those two mystics led
to us as a Commonwealth to start
realizing that our narrative is
different we are not subjects we are not
meant to be under her majesty we
actually kings we are meant to rule
ourselves in that in the same manner now
what is happening is because of this
Africa rising and because of this
African Renaissance we I yet still have
this phenom phenomenal called fake news
fake news basically is news without
context because if every news channel
provided context to every story that is
ever told then would not be in a place
of doubting ourselves fake news robs us
of one thing our right to choose because
we do not have the full context then we
do not have our democratic right to be
able to choose what it is that we are
going to believe context in itself
midwives truth from content therefore I
want to ask you again is content king or
is context king when it comes down to us
as people now we are in what subgroups
around Facebook we’re on Twitter every
time somebody’s sending a message thugs
are killing people on the road somewhere
then you ask where did you find this for
that has received
why do we accept that as a standard for
added as received we step away from the
responsibility of finding out the
context of this message and just put
that one line for added as received I
want to add you as people learn to add
you as citizens and to address Africans
not even as Kenyans but every message
you find every message you receive every
message you see someone posting on their
Facebook or somewhere else and they have
some war story happening or something to
create some kind of panic please push
them to give you more context push them
to find out where their content is
coming from make sure that they know
what it is they’re sending out otherwise
your ammo or you’re a war monger like
them make sure that everybody provides
you the basis to what you’re consuming
if content is king then context is
fucking’s
thank you
[Applause]
be asked to be on this red carpet my
topic today is context is freedom
basically we’re gonna talk about how we
frame ourselves as Africans how we see
ourselves as Africans omastar was a Star
Trek fan I grew up watching Captain
jean-luc Picard boldly going where no
one has gone before
and it was nice to see the opportunity
of maybe as human beings being able to
discover other worlds and discover other
people so even as I grew older I began
downloading as every kenyan does or
buying episodes of the oldest a trek the
Spock and Kirk generation so I was
really happy when Netflix decided to
reboot it and they now have a Star Trek
reboot 2017 reboot that’s going on right
now I’m an avid fan but my favorite line
in that reboot is you chose to do the
right thing above what was sanctioned
that’s the kind of thinking that wins
was the kind of thinking that I need
next to me because universal law is for
Lackey’s context is for kings when I was
thinking of what I wanted to say I was
watching Star Trek and I realized that’s
exactly where my heart lies in that how
do we frame ourselves it is good that
content is king but what about context
in 2014 the IMF came up with a workshop
that they called Africa rising and ever
since then Africa has been raising in
every sphere in tech in agriculture in
media production which are mean
everything is Africa rising Africa
rising the Dark Continent Hazari nations
finally there’s a light shining on us to
show what we are doing rather than what
we are known for which is mostly
corruption being a war disease
but then I still don’t know if people
are really thinking about it in the same
value of context as a documentary and co
and conservation photographer the key
thing that I focus on and the people I
work with focus on is being able to
marry the right moment in time within
it’s the right context as a result we’ve
been able to put out content out there
where people are proud of when they see
Kenya when they see Africa because right
now we are not just showing Africa in
the right lights but also showing it
within the right context yes we have
disease yes we have death yes we have
corruption but I don’t think it makes us
any less proud of who we are instead of
it being the either/or of some of the
speakers here have said it is the end
and so the reason I speak about context
is because context frames content you
cannot produce content by itself and the
worst of itself be divorced of context
and expect people to be able to
understand what it is you’re saying I
came across this the first time in 2007
I was shooting in Kibera right before
the election the famous election
happened in Kenya and two rival
communities had come together to build
bio latrines to be able to enable the
people within the communities to have a
safe place to go and do their business
yet at the same time be able to generate
energy needed for cooking so I did this
project for nearly two months and at one
point I stopped to take a photo of a
child who had sat down now this child
was tired since the community didn’t
have people to come and do the building
they were building these latrines
themselves so everybody chipped in the
kids helped with clearing the sites the
women helped bringing in the stones and
the cement and the men put together
everything and built the structure so
this child was tired he had carried
stones the whole morning he had cleared
the place of sticks and of logs and he
sat down and I took a photo of this
child and
laughter at some point I posted it
somewhere and someone I knew came and
said oh it’s the typical Kabira story a
child looking sad sitting looking into
the distance and I said no he’s not sad
he’s tired but we kept going back and
forth over what this child was doing is
he sad is he tired and I took that home
with me because I realized that I had
misrepresented this child and so that
things stuck in my mind for a long time
because I kept asking myself how can I
do this better how can I show our people
one with dignity but to in a realistic
way that’s when I learned about context
I realized that we cannot divorce our
subs as content creators we cannot
divorce our subject from his ecosystem
we have to be able to find a way to
include the two of them within the
content we are producing therefore be
able to have a realistic image of who
hears our people now the people who have
done this very well is the United States
of America they produce content in a way
that makes you want to go to America
everybody here grew up at a time or was
alive at a time when people are going to
the States everybody is going to study
or to look for a job to become a nanny
to watch old people everyone was going
to the States to do something and it was
sad because I remember somebody telling
me why are people going to the States
when they have lives back here and I
realize it’s because of the content that
were producing we all saw how America
was saving the world from an English or
Asian or a Russian in some cinematic
style being able to shoot all the thugs
in one with one shot and save the world
but that is how they show their country
and therefore people are proud to be
called Americans or want to be called
Americans there’s a whole exodus of
Africans from all over the continent
going to America to try to live this
American dream because we content
creators or rather their content
creators have shown America in a
different light why are we not doing the
same for us in Africa
content makes people consume what it is
that your context make people produce
the con consume the content you’re
producing in the way that you want them
to see it but then in Africa what has
happened is our politicians or our
authoritarians have stifled the
production of content and therefore been
able to regulate even how we view
ourselves and in the context that we
view ourselves as a result we only
believe ourselves through a single story
or a single lens and we all know the
dangers of a single story we either are
this community or we had that community
versus this community and there’s
nothing else in between hence we are
always at war we’re always fighting
always killing each other because of a
single narrative yet if we knew
everything in context I think would be
able to question why we’re actually
doing what we’re doing but this is not
their fault it’s actually who are taught
this by the British the colonialists
came and told us that we were meant for
one thing to be subjects and we believed
them but then the British also made two
mistakes one is they made us go to war
for them it is said of a hundred and
sixty thousand Africans went to war for
the British was they did not even
understand my own grandfather went to
Burma I don’t think he had been beyond
his village before that and he
fourteen-hour against an enemy he didn’t
understand Japanese how do you take a
lui a man to go and fight Japanese
doesn’t make sense but then he came back
and he came back with stories of how
this white man is actually a weak man
that he is afraid of the changes in
weather
he gets the Sun beats him so hard that
he is unable to you know to hide to
fight with every other person he runs to
the back when he tells the other
Africans to go and fight the changes in
in climate also affect him very
significantly than the other Africans
because he’s not too used to a tropical
climate therefore he is not always
available so the Africans have to
command themselves most of the time
thirdly he is also very sensitive to
changes in
like the insect so in sickness he gets
malaria very easily when we Africans had
a bit of an advantage so they began
demystifying this demigod that we had
called the colonialist then in the 50s
Africans again went to school they
studied the land about things like
freedom democracy they began knowing
that they actually had they had the
right to be a people Martin Luther
actually said Martin Luther the third
actually said that the Negro began
knowing that he was somebody and that
began planting the seeds in the seedbed
of Independence and self-rule we began
knowing that we as a people can actually
rule ourselves so those two mystics led
to us as a Commonwealth to start
realizing that our narrative is
different we are not subjects we are not
meant to be under her majesty we
actually kings we are meant to rule
ourselves in that in the same manner now
what is happening is because of this
Africa rising and because of this
African Renaissance we I yet still have
this phenom phenomenal called fake news
fake news basically is news without
context because if every news channel
provided context to every story that is
ever told then would not be in a place
of doubting ourselves fake news robs us
of one thing our right to choose because
we do not have the full context then we
do not have our democratic right to be
able to choose what it is that we are
going to believe context in itself
midwives truth from content therefore I
want to ask you again is content king or
is context king when it comes down to us
as people now we are in what subgroups
around Facebook we’re on Twitter every
time somebody’s sending a message thugs
are killing people on the road somewhere
then you ask where did you find this for
that has received
why do we accept that as a standard for
added as received we step away from the
responsibility of finding out the
context of this message and just put
that one line for added as received I
want to add you as people learn to add
you as citizens and to address Africans
not even as Kenyans but every message
you find every message you receive every
message you see someone posting on their
Facebook or somewhere else and they have
some war story happening or something to
create some kind of panic please push
them to give you more context push them
to find out where their content is
coming from make sure that they know
what it is they’re sending out otherwise
your ammo or you’re a war monger like
them make sure that everybody provides
you the basis to what you’re consuming
if content is king then context is
fucking’s
thank you
[Applause]
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