One of the speakers we had the pleasure of listening to at this year’s TEDxEustonSalon was Siyanda Mohutsiwa. Her video at a previous TED talks event was replayed at our TEDxEuston annual event, and it was mindblowing. It takes a lot for a young lady barely in her twenties to silence a room of many older than her, but silence us, she did.
It all started with a Twitter hashtag she created, titled #IfAfricaWasABar. Tweeters were asked to contribute who/what their country would be and what they’d be drinking. There were the funny contributions, the sad tweets, and the challenging questions. But what was certain was this: the ties that bound us were more than those that divided us.
Add to that the resources that were hitherto unthinkable, unaffordable or simply inaccessible; eg twitter and other social media platforms, and suddenly, this young lady could envisage a pan-Africanism like never before.
For those of us hearing the word for the first time, Pan-Africanism is a worldwide intellectual movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Siyanda Mohutsiwa believes that this is made easier for the first time by access to Social Media and the internet: the new truly Global Village that belongs to the young and the brave.
This is the time to tell our own story. To tell our own truths and to govern ourselves according to our own dictates. There will no longer be injustices done in the dark or politicians telling us that this is the way things are when we can clearly see from our timelines that they are wrong.
The talk is brief, but it is moving, and every African with unfettered access to the internet must watch this.
[LISTEN]
[WATCH THE INSPIRED TALK HERE!]
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