Global Changemakers

- With some distance to the event, Bongani looks back at the WEF Africa 2010.

Committed to improving the state of the world. That is the motto of the World Economic Forum and during the week that the five of us as Changemakers were in Dar Es Salaam we saw it everywhere we went. Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of the WEF, even referenced us Global Changemakers as people with “attitudes that improve the state of the world”. And I’ve been asking myself the question, did we really change the state of the world in that one week in Dar Es Salaam?

First of all I have to start on the “committed” part. We met some amazing people from the Forum itself. Really visionary people who managed, somehow, to host 2000 people, including participants and their spouses, journalists and security and get them to really discuss the issues affecting Africa for three whole days. That in itself is no mean task.

I remember the first day when we met Katherine Tweedie, the Head of Africa for the WEF, and she was literally glued to her cell phone as she efficiently handled the pressures of organizing and graciously giving her time to meet us at the same time. We also got to go behind the scenes into the working areas which were filled with cables and computers and WEF staff busy getting the whole thing together. And over the next three days, we met them everywhere we went, with their blue badges, always helping out and always having something positive to say.

“Improving the state of the world”. I like that one because in the first instance it admits that the world needs to be improved, that we are not there yet; that in some cases that we have a long way to go. At the WEF, we talked about the plethora of problems that Africa has, we explored the wide variety of opportunities she is facing in the 21st century and we came up with new ideas that she can use to develop herself. I heard some motivating success stories, like the one of the free Mozambican newspaper, @Verdade, committed to providing high quality information the masses. Those are success stories that need to be heard, that the world needs to see; see how Africa lives and innovates and not only how she is suffering and dying.

And what is a forum without discussions? For three days everything under the sun was discussed, from leadership to technology, poverty to climate change. I have to be honest, some of it was not really revolutionary. But for the most part issues were discussed frankly, honestly and in some cases brutally. We were not talking about an imaginary Africa as we would like her to be, as we dream her to be. We talked about an Africa, real and existing, with all her problems and all her potentials. We talked about (and to) her leaders, we challenged her and their problems.

 I remember vividly during one session when Benjamin Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania, said, “Leaders must be prepared to be led!” and the whole audience seemed to gasp in amazed silence. A truth was revealed there and then, and I was glad someone had the guts to say it out. And perhaps that was and is the beauty of the WEF; it gave all of us the platform to say out what needs to be changed and know that we were being listened to.

And now I suppose the challenge lies with us. The challenge lies with us as the world, us as a continent, and us as Changemakers to act out on what was talked about. To take the bull by the horns and really improve the state of the world. Because to quote Graça Machel once again, “The best tool for changing the world is ourselves”.

- Bongani Ncube, Global Changemaker