Africa is the continent that gave birth to the human race, it
is a place of abundant natural wealth and it is a place of great beauty. By
rights Africa should be the Eden of our planet but, alas, it is not. When the
rest of the world thinks of Africa they think of war, poverty, laziness and
people who are late for appointments. The rest of the world either looks down
on us or sees us as some sort of charity case. South Africa, like many African
states is a place of vast wealth and crippling poverty all in one place. TEDxTableMountain, like all TEDx events all over the globe, is an independently
organised event that looks to get people together in the spirit of nurturing ideas worth spreading. TED is a
non-profit organisation devoted to spreading good ideas. It started as a
four-day conference in California some 26 years ago and has since spread to the
rest of the word, even darkest Africa. The idea is that thinkers and doers are
asked to give a talk in 18 minutes that will share a great idea. Independent events
are organised under the TEDx name with support from TED. So although Africa has
many problems there are many individuals working hard and working smart to
address our problems. TEDx TableMountain hosted their second event on Monday
night, 25 May and the theme was: Journeys of Excellence. 25 May is also Africa
Day so what better way to celebrate the continent than listening to a great
line-up of speakers explore ideas that can help ease some of our problems or at
least start a conversation that will pave the way to solutions.
This year’s TEDx TableMountain event took place at the
Artscape Theatre and curator, Candice Pelser (@CandicePelser) and her team did
a great job organising the event. I’m a super nerd for any event where people
share ideas and dragged my ever suffering girlfriend with me to the event. We
were welcomed with a ‘passport’ to the talks each and some other cute freebies
and it was all rather cool. The crowd was massive and everyone looked excited
to be there as they stood around chatting. We had to wait a bit longer than
expected to be seated because the previous Africa Day event ran a bit longer
than anticipated. Once everyone was inside the theatre and seated we were ready
to go. Some important and somewhat familiar looking people could be seen in the
front rows, the most recognizable being Premier of the Western Cape, Helen
Zille. I made a mental note to take a selfie with her later.
Our Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening was the beautiful,
delightful and super enthusiastic Chi Mhende (@chi_mhende). The evening saw
some powerful performances by the Ikapa Youth Dance Theatre (http://ikapadancetheatre.co.za/trai/youth-dance-theatre), Derek Gripper (@derekgripper)
translating great African composers whose music is passed down for generations
but never written down and the group, Whispers of Wisdom (@Whisperzofwiz)
delivering a performance that inspires Africans, especially the youth, to dream
bigger than is expected of them. The overarching theme on the evening was that
even though South Africa and the rest of Africa are facing serious and very
large problems Africans can step up to the plate and through individual and
collaborative journeys of excellence we can rise above those problems.
The speakers were made up of Dr Gubela Mji who spoke about
her experience working as a researcher collecting data about how to improve the
lives of disabled people but then seeing that research just being stored up in
shelves and never being used for anything. She formed a network with other
researchers and like-minded individuals to take all the data just sitting
around and started exploring ways to make the date accessible enough so as to
actually be useful in improving the lives of disable people. Paul Mesarcik
(@paulmesarcik) showed a device that he and his team created to detect shack
fires before they spread and leave many people homeless. The device is called
Lumkani, which loosely translates from Xhosa to English as everyone beware. Dr
Llewellyn Padayachy, a paediatric neurosurgeon spoke about his research into
non-invasive techniques to diagnose and guide the treatment of critical
conditions affecting the brain, especially in poor communities in which many
people can’t afford expensive surgeries for diagnosing such conditions. Dr
Tindile Booi is a qualified medical doctor and now works in a psychiatric
context and helps children from difficult backgrounds and teenagers affected by
HIV cope with their situations and helps them believe that life is worth
living. One of the ways she does this is interactive storytelling. Dr Tindile
Booi’s talk/performance was my favourite of the evening and her way of telling
stories, singing and dancing is a thing of beauty to behold.
Shadreck Chirikure is Associate Professor of Archaeology and
Director of the Archaeological Materials Laboratory at the University of Cape
Town and he addressed the negative view that people have of Africa as never
having produced any technology. He explored some old findings to the contrary
and showed that Africa has produced some advanced technology through its
history. Continuing with the technological trend Prof Robert van Zyl showcased
the CubeSat he worked on with his students. The CubeSat is a nanosatellite in
the shape of a cube that can be sent into Space at relatively low cost. Joseph
Wamicha, a young man after my own heart, spoke about how the idea of deeper
space exploration and eventually colonisation is not just the stuff of science
fiction but something we can work on right now. The Earth’s resources are
finite, as we know very well here in Africa, but if we could look beyond the
Earth and tap into the bountiful resources of the universe we could solve many
conflicts here on Earth.
What I took away from the evening is that Africa is more than
just a place of darkness and backward thinking. Yes, we have problems but
Africans are more than capable of surmounting those problems with the wealth of
resources we have. Not resources in terms of gold of silver but rather our
human capital. Africans know hardship but this is also what makes us more
resourceful and think outside of the box. Africans can be excellent and be a
force of good change in the world. Events like TEDx TableMountain are very
important because they provide us with the platform to get together and discuss
our problems and our ideas for solving them.
