A few days after the conclusion of the Youth Connekt Africa Summit held from the 19 – 21 July 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda under the theme, From Potential to Success, video of Akon’s keynote speech is being propagated through the web in a manner that would make one think his was the highlight of the event.
Before eating the flesh of this article, I have to take a few lines to commend Rwandans on the strides they have made as a people to haul themselves out of some very dark period in their history to becoming one of the countries to emulate on the continent Africa.
Back to base.
Akon’s keynote highlighted the fact that economic and political bargaining power between nations comes down to “branding and marketing.” Agreed, but everything he said after that could easily be taken out of context and applied solely in a instagram model mentality which is why I write here to clarify certain things. He attributes America’s political/economic power to the country’s ability to control the stories being told about itself to the world - citing the number of atrocities on American soil that get swept under the carpet allowing only diffusion of the glorious superhero stories.
America might have succeeded in branding itself like the instagram model but that is not the entirety of branding. Branding is ‘defining your personality’ and there are many desirable personalities for different people. Your brand can be ‘I got the flyest shoes’ as well as ‘I don’t need the flyest shoes’ and both work perfectly even though I happen to think the later is more sustainable.
Akon is right about Africans needing to tell their own story but we need to be wary of telling a story because we think that is the popular story to tell. We cannot try to tell our story in the way America tells its story because we’ll end up with those Nigerian spider man movies that just make us look ridiculous. We have to tell the stories necessary for our growth and that is what Kagame wants us to do.
The story is that of a people that have come from challenges relating to our very own survival to a people that have made some progress that is not enough to be celebrated as yet.In his words, “We still have to aim higher and go further.” A story of a people with different priorities other than subscribing to the acceptable way of life as put forward by the west. A story of people who will have to fight to get what they want. A story in the hands of the youth who can build the Africa we want “through technology, entrepreneurship, and above all, our dignity.”
I am reminded of an article I wrote last week on the page with regards to Nigeria’s government looking to ban entertainers from shooting movies and music videos abroad. Many readers thought it was a good thing for the Nigerian economy and many thought it was not the place of the government to control creative liberties. With this I now ask myself -Is the story we want to tell about Africa a story in which Africans always want to leave Africa to tell their story?