In the Grandiose Parlor…

Seeing the Challenges in Africa as opportunities…Euvin Naidoo, VP of South Africa’s Standard Bank speaks at TEDGlobal conference, Arusha-Tanzania. He provides the facts and figures, and forces you to see beyond the obvious.

Source: TED

Prepping for the premiere of the conference video of the Arusha TEDGlobal conference in August, TED Blog is featuring postings from some Afro-bloggers, including yours truly. Here are excerpts from Imnakoya:

As one of the missing-in-action Fellows who couldn’t attend the conference, the only rational thing I could do was plug into the mainstream media (MSM)-dominated information pipeline to follow the event. Well, this didn’t happen; the MSM dropped the ball — there was little or no coverage. Unexpectedly, the African bloggers stepped up to the plate, giving a comprehensive and almost hourly rendition of event. This is unprecedented in Africa. As I write this piece, African blogs are the only existing and extensive source of information on the TEDGlobal conference.

Just as no one would have thought some “ragtag bunch of unschooled bloggers” would become so relevant in broadcasting and amplifying what ensued in Arusha, no one would have deemed it possible to cull so much intellectual and entrepreneurial energy at one time in one remote location in Africa.

Read full text on TED Blog: “African bloggers stepped up to the plate …”

Hash’s (at White African) blog response (“Where were the Hippos?”) to the Economist article on the TED African conference is interesting. This is the statement that provoked the Hash:

There were notably few of the hard-knuckle African politicians who often run the interior or defence ministry or act as kingmakers, sometimes bankrolling rotten presidents. – Economist

The issue raised in the Economist is valid. And I don’t think the writer is “missing the bigger picture” either.

The Arusha TED conference pulled its attendees mainly from the social catalyst and entrepreneur/business crowd – who came with the “we can do” mentality and highly energized to proselytize the gospel of the change that Africa needs so badly. While this was fantastic and offered an unprecedented opportunity to see Africa in a new light and spur fresh and creative ideas, the inclusion of the Hippos – the “hard-knuckle African politicians and kingmakers” – would have made the event more wholesome. Just as the presence of Bono and Ayittey – two die-hard pro-aid and pro-trade proponents – lent some balance and interesting perspectives to the conference deliberation, the presence of the Hippos would have done same.

The Hippos are not becoming irrelevant as Hash emphatically states in his post; they continue to dominate core segments of the African public sector! And will not be made to disappear just by the abundant passion and creativity the Cheetahs possess.

If the plan of the Cheetah generation is to “wrestle” power from the Hippos, acquire more clout and/or attain widespread social impact via their ventures, they need to find ways get into the heads of the Hippos. At the very least present some notable Hippos the opportunity to listen to their messages. This kind of communication and interaction is yet to happen in Africa…maybe this ought to be the next TED agenda for Africa or in the minds of the TED Fellows as they continue their post conference discussions.

I don’t think it’s immodest to see the June 4-7 2007 TEDGlobal conference as a revolution. Although the conference is several days over, the impact continue to sizzle in the minds of the attendees, and in those who weren’t physically present at the Arusha-Tanzania venue of the conference but tuned in to the sessions via the writings of the various bloggers present at ground zero. Yes, for the four days the conference lasted, Arusha was the African ground zero – if just for no other reasons than the sheer magnitude of the collective passion and human capital of the attendees which if magically milled into action could have transformed Africa for its third world appellation into the Garden of Eden of the new world immediately after the conference closed!

I must say it was a very smart idea to have bloggers on ground, and I wasn’t surprised, Emeka Okafor (of Timbuktu Chronicles) – the program director of the event, is one of the top-notch bloggers from Africa. And as expected, the event hardly came up on the radar screens of the major mainstream media (MSM)…after all this isn’t about famine, war or some grotesque story on the continent. TEDGlobal was about Africans and Afrophiles coming together for four days to showcase the continent and brain-storm in ways and manners that the world has never seen. As sensational as this was, the MSM fell flat on it’s face and dropped the ball – big time!

As expected, more TED materials are coming out of the wood work:
Continue reading…

“Right now, the circumstances under which you are born determine your life – I want to see that change. As Africans, we need to take responsibility for the future of the continent.”

This was the closing statement of Ory Okolloh a Harvard-trained Kenyan lawyer and blogger at Kenyan Pundit, I just read the summary of her speech (by Ethan Zuckerman) at the just concluded [tag]TEDGlobal07[/tag], where she discussed the Mzalendo project.

I hope some of my Naija colleagues and bloggers are reading…

Ethan Zuckerman, one of the bloggers attending the [tag]TEDGlobal07[/tag] conference in Arusha,-Tanzania writes:

Franco Sacchi, an Italian filmmaker living in Boston, has just produced a remarkable film about Nollywood. [tag]Nollywood[/tag] is the third largest film industry in the world, after Hollywood and Bollywood. The Nigerian film industry makes 2000 films a year, as of 2006, which means that every week, 40 to 50 films are being made on the streets of Lagos and in cities throughout West Africa. The industry has created thousands of jobs… and it’s happened against all odds in a country where it can be very difficult to live and work.

Read more

Photo:From Harinjaka, another blogger at TED from Madagascar

Arusha, TEDGlobal ’07, more pictures from White African

George Ayittey is the author of the book Bono has on his face – or covering his mouth. This picture is symbolic to those who have the read the book and aware of Ayittey stance on African economics and Bono’s “Africa needs aid” mentality. Get the book if you don’t have it yet (Africa Unchained)!

Here is another dimension of the conference from Jen Brea, blogger at Africanbeat, who flew in from China; this is one powerful statement from her I’ve to plagiarized:

“Andrew Dosunmu (Nigerian film producer, photographer, conference speaker) took my brain and rotated it exactly 90 degrees. I’d developed a very different perception of Africans than I had been exposed to in the New York Times (violent, sick, or dying) or National Geographic (exotic, naked, and dancing) from spending time in West Africa and making good friends.

But I never considered the power of dispelling stereotypes by daring to portray the mundane. Africans cheering for the home team, Africans falling in love, Africans dreaming about the future, Africans making money, Africans just trying to lose weight.

And it made me begin wondering why it is that the international media denies Africans (and I’m plagiarizing Chris Abani here) the right to exist in all of their complexity.

Only six of 53 African countries are in civil war. Yes thousands of Africans are dying of malaria and HIV/AIDS. Yes children are taking from their homes and forced to endure and themselves perpetrate horrors that would turn any grown man or woman mad.

But millions more are just living their lives. These lives may not be easy, but they are filled with all the mundane conflicts, aspirations, disappointments and joys that people all around the world experience.

But telling that story instead, can it sell magazines? Can it satisfy the Western need for shocking, escapist pain porn?”

More of [tag]TEDGlobal07[/tag] on AfricanLoft