The Displaced African » African leaders

Mwangi Interviews African Leadership Academy Student: Tabitha Tongoi

Mwangi — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:30:34 +0000

The Interview

Brief Introduction

I have known Tabitha, her family and her sister, Julie Tongoi, who I interviewed a while back, for years and years and years. So, it is with much pleasure that I learned about her being accepted to the African Leadership Academy and also share this interview with you.

Let me encourage you: let us record excellence or success and share it with our fellow Africans. Even if it is in things that may be automatic or easy to you e.g. getting a job or getting a house, there is an immigrant somewhere out there who needs to know what you know, so please, we need more versions of the Displaced African (tDA) and success magazine out there. For an example of this, check out Kelly’s articles on the interview process.

More Interviews?

By the way if you would be interested in me interviewing any more of the people accepted into the leadership academy, then leave a comment below or email me at masmilele(at)thedisplacedafrican(dot)com and let me know.

Things Discussed

1) Brief introduction to her and the leadership academy

2) How did she hear about the leadership academy?

3) Why was she chosen out of all the people interviewed ?

4) The criteria to get into the school

5) How did the school measure whether “someone has a passion for Africa”?

6) Her plans as she goes to the leadership academy and beyond

7) The pros and cons of the Kenyan 8-4-4 education system. You can click on the link to find out more about 8-4-4 or leave a comment below and ask me a question and I will tell you the little I know.
Information about Tabitha’s Project ABC (“A Book for Change”) which had the goal of providing text books to children who do not have access to them. Now tell me this isn’t what innovation is all about? Compare this with the work Fidelis Wainaina did as well.

9) What is it about her psychology and her day to day habits that separates her from her peers?

10) Who are her parents and what do they do?

11) Mental exercise:

Let’s asssume that you have a young, fresh African mind that is a blank state in your stewardship:

i) What are the principles you would use to guide this person?

ii) What would this child be doing on a day to day basis?

12) What type of support network does she have?

13) Her work process which has been described as outstanding.

14) How would she like to be remembered

If you like this interview, make sure you subscribe to the Displaced African podcast to receive the latest podcasts direct to your mp3 player. You can do this by either:

a) Subscribing to the Displaced African podcast RSS feed or;

b) Subscribing to the Podcast from Itunes

A Small Digression

Tabitha spoke about how she is able to hold off on enjoying her friends’ company from time to time, to work, because she sees the long term vision in it. For those who may not know what their long term vision is, or for those who need ideas on that let me recommend you check out the interview with Kirk Nugent where he talks about that.

Websites Mentioned

1) Find more information on the African Leadership Academy and Tabitha Tongoi’s involvement in it, read this article from the African Loft website.

2) Find more information on Kenyan education system, 8-4-4.

3) African Leadership Academy website.

4) Irene Tongoi’s, New Dawn Kenya

5) More information on her father, Dennis Tongoi

6) Karura Community Chapel

Audio Interview: The Woman Who Entered a Poor, AIDS-ravaged Community and Left It as a Self-Sustaining Banana Exporter

Mwangi — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:04:16 +0000

Posts like this are why the Displaced African was born and what I pretty much live for.

On the 5th of March 2008, an absolute angel amongst men by the name of Fidelis Wainaina died. Aside from being a simply amazing human being (as you will hear in the podcast) what was absolutely amazing about her body of work is that starting with absolutely nothing she helped the constituents of Maseno turn their community from a poor, AIDS ravaged community into a self-sufficient banana exporting constituency that is now on its way to self-created wealth.

Now, sad to say, in this day and age, an event such as her death passed without much mention from the media. However, since I am blessed to have a blog and a means to communicate with Africa and the world, I thought I would do my part to ensure that souls such as hers are never ever forgotten and are in fact celebrated. I also hope that this podcast will help spur on all the people doing good work in Africa and inspire those not in the game of service to dive in.

Before I get to the meat of this post let me give you some very quick tips on how you can help ensure posts such as this reach the most people and have the most impact.

11 Things To Do After You Read This Article

Please do AT LEAST one of the following things after reading this post and/or listening to the podcast:

Email it to all your friends who might be interested in it.

Write your opinions on Fidelis in your own blog (like Sukuma Kenya did )

Link to this article from your blog and share your thoughts on it.

Send this article to your local paper and ask them to do a write-up on Fidelis Wainaina.

Email world wide online publications such as Pambazuka, Black looks, Global Voices Online, Jamati and allafrica and ask them to do a feature to commemorate Fidelis.

Start up your own initiatives like Fidelis’ Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group (MICH) and let me know about them so I can interview you too.

Share this article with your friends on Facebook (there is a link that allows you to do so at the end of this post).

Stumble this article and expose it to millions of people all over this world (if enough people Stumble this article around the same time, it can be read by up to 1000s of people within the next 24 hours). There is a link that allows you to Stumble this article at the bottom of the post. If you are not a member of StumbleUpon, make sure you sign up-it’s free. It is one of the greatest websites EVER!

If you are a journalist or film maker or involved in any form of mass media, do a special on her and feel free to reference this post or any of its contents.

Do what you can to get the word out about Fidelis, her work and similar projects.

If you know anyone else who I should interview because of the good work they do, do not hesitate to contact me .And for helping me with this, I thank you a lot.

Without Further Ado

The first podcast in the history of the Displaced African (yay). Hope it inspires you.

The file is 45 minutes long so feel free to Download it and carry it on your ipod (Download it by right clicking on the ‘Download’ link below the player, selecting “Save File As”/ “Save Target As” and letting the goodness flow from the web to your computer )

Some Quick Notes About the Podcast

1) I understand that some people do not quite agree with the view presented in this interview of why the violence in Kenya broke out – i.e. that a lot of it was a direct attack against Kikuyus as either perceived revenge or to displace them. That’s fine. It’s not the main point of the interview anyway, and we were not physically in Kenya during the violence so we could definitely be wrong.

2) Any notes on how to improve my interview technique or any questions that weren’t fully answered, leave a comment or contact me and let me know.

3) Fidelis’ organization is known as Maseno Interchristian Child Self Help Group (MICH)

4) The exchange rate we were discussing was the US Dollar vs the Kenya shilling. To check out exchange rates, visit the Yahoo currency converter.

5) The Luo name for her was Nyar Okuyu.

Further Information

East African Standard article from August 28 2006

East African Standard interviews Fidelis Wainaina

Yarra Prize Laureates 2006 article

Listen to Fidelis Wainaina give a speech: “On the Front Lines of Poverty” during the Micah Conference 2007: http://www.kingsu.ca/micah/audio/WedAM-Fidelis.mp3

Article regarding her death from Australian organization, TEAR (She was supposed to visit us during this Australian tour…sigh!): http://www.tear.org.au/projects/news/a-tribute-to-fidelis-wainaina/

A short story regarding Fidelis from the ONE Organization: http://www.one.org/blog/category/fidelis-wainaina/

Another brief article about her death:

From a European website.

World Evagelical Alliance also mention her death: http://www.worldevangelicals.org/news/view.htm?id=1711

For more information, also check out the Google search results for the term: Fidelis Wainaina

Please don’t forget to do one of the 11 things listed above as soon as you finish reading this article. And of course, if you enjoyed this podcast and want to make sure you receive updates when I begin doing regular inspirational podcasts, please subscribe to the site for free via either:

a) Email

b) RSS

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

My Heroes (Bonus): Dead Prez

Mwangi — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:08:38 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

1) Erwin Mcmanus

2) Kirk Franklin

3) Eric Wainaina

4) Malcolm X and Steve Biko

5) Anthony Robbins

6) 7 special people

7) Fidelis Wainaina

NB: This post has a lot of cussing via the music so if that turns you off then skip right by the music tracks and enjoy the article!

This series was only supposed to be seven articles long but I had to show love to Dead Prez. Like Malcolm, there are a lot of things these guys say that I just plain don’t agree with-in fact as I was researching for this article I realized that it was way more than I initially thought. Ultimately, though, I love these cats because their hearts are in the right place: they want to help their communities get free and liberate all oppressed people worldwide through the mic.

Biography

Please check out their Wikipedia page or their Amazon page or their official website for more information on Dead Prez.

Why I Love M1 and stic.man?

1) You Don’t Have to Listen to the Music for Just the Beat: How many of us listen to music ‘just for the beat’ knowing that if we were to absorb in just what the artist is saying (which we usually end up doing anyway) we would be much worse off than before the song began? You don’t even have to worry about that when listening to tracks such as Hip-Hop (below), Happiness and You are what you eat. Through these tracks they educate and encourage. So pop in a Dead Prez CD to get your mind fed by some educated, enlightened, compassionate, respect-worthy men.

2) They Educate and Encourage: Whether its through their books or their interviews or their CDs, Dead Prez strive to give information to their community that they can immediately apply to make their lives better. They talk about the education system, the economic structure, police brutality and a whole host of other issues that truly matter when it’s all said and don e. Case in point: You are what you eat (track is at the bottom of the article).

One of the things that absolutely convinced me that I had to do something on these guys was when I heard stic.man’s track ‘I Believe’ (track is at the end of the article). How many people are crippled by a whole host of addictions and need tracks such as ‘I Believe’ to inspire and encourage them?

3) They Unashamedly Criticize the Power Structure: Here they even make me uncomfortable. They are brutal and scathing in their critiques of the power structure and the way that those in power have trampled on and stepped on the little people. They don’t just restrict their critique to the US, as was shown when M1 did a collaboration with Tanzanian artist, Nakaaya called Mr. Politician (track at the end of the article)

4) They Release Intelligent, ‘Real’ Love Songs: When most hip hop artists sing love songs, in the back of my mind I usually think they are probably just doing it for commercial reasons. When Dead Prez release tracks such as ‘Mind Sex‘ and ‘Love You Can’t Borrow‘ you can see that these are people who respect women and respect relationships and are singing about a love that is coming from deep inside them. Plus, how great is the term ‘Mind sex’ for a stimulating, sexy, seductive conversation.

5) They Take Care of their Bodies: Listen to ‘You are what you eat’ one more time and tell me these aren’t brothers who focus on taking care of the bodies that God blessed them with.

6) They Don’t Waste Lyrical Space: Even some of my favourite rappers such as Talib Kweli and Mos Def and a lot of our local artists waste a lot of lyrical space bragging about who they are and what they can do. Dead Prez are probably the only artists I know who completely stepped away from that: I mean why talk about how great a lyricist and an MC you are when you can prove it by doing a hip-hop rendition of Animal Farm (below)

7) They Reached Out to Africa: First they declared that they were Africans, on the track ‘I’m an African’(below). Then,they did a track with Naakaya and then THEY DID A TRACK WITH KALAMASHAKA (below). For those who don’t understand who Kalamashaka are, they are the East African equivalent of Grandmaster Flash; they were some of the first guys to create the East African music industry, which has since exploded, and they did it with clever, socially conscious lyrics. Dead Prez took time to step out of the ghettos of the US and do collabos with some of Africa’s own gifts to music. For that they have my eternal respect.

Right now, I am just buzzing, and I could have said so much more about these two guys but I think I will just leave it right there and let their music speak for itself. Something to say? Even though you disagree, please express yourself.

You are what you eat, so eat blessed and spit out nothing but the blessed,

Mwangi

My Heroes: Steve Biko and Malcolm X and the Great Africans of the 20th Century

Mwangi — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:34:57 +0000

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

1) Erwin Mcmanus

2) Kirk Franklin

3) Eric Wainaina

I think in this, the 21st century, when we as black people can see so much negative within our community and find so much going wrong about us, we sometimes forget that the last century was almost entirely defined by our great forefathers. If you look through lists of the greatest people of the last century, there are almost always great black people such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Frantz Fanon, Patrice Lumumba, Tom Mboya, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King and Malcolm X.

Whereas my admiration is equally divided amongst so many of the great black people of the last 20th century, very few people have captivated my heart in the manner that Steve Biko and Malcolm X had. This is because:

1) Their Sincere Love for their Race: When I first encountered the works of these great men, it was when I was going through a stage of being really ashamed of my race. When I read Biko and his ideas of the Black Consciousness Movement, I almost cried in jubilation, ” I matter! I am special! This being black thing makes me special!” My exposure to Biko’s work is at most very superficial but all I really needed was quotes such as the one below to become a major fan:

“Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression – the blackness of their skin – and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.”

“So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.”

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Malcolm X was an entirely different case. In terms of Malcolm I was first exposed to his speeches (such as the Field Negroe/House Negroe speech) and by the time I watched the biopic Make it Plain, I had no doubt in my mind that though I may not have agreed with a lot of his ideas when he was in the Nation of Islam, deep in the core of his heart, he cared and existed to improve the lives of black people worldwide. That is why when he visited Africa in the middle of the century, he was given the name “Omowale”, meaning “the son returns home” in the Yoruba language.

2) They Made Us Take Responsibility: Biko and Malcolm didn’t just want to make us feel special and leave us feeling good, they wanted us to take responsibility for our psychology, our education, our communities and our lives. That’s why Malcolm spoke about the African Americans separating from the rest of American society so that they could take absolute responsibility for how their communities were run.

Biko was also committed to freeing South Africa from the shackles of Apartheid, so much so that he was not only placed under house arrest but died at the hands of Apartheid’s barbaric foot soldiers.

3) They Were Men of Substance: These men always carried themselves with dignity and respect and were men who you would never be ashamed to tell your kids to look up to. With all due respect to Dr. King, he strayed from home quite a few times, and it amazes me that Malcolm, with his criminal background,never did the same. Educated, intelligent, classy brothers who had compassion in their heart and carried themselves with courage and conviction. Yup!

4) They Had COURAGE: I intend to write about this in future. In my opinion, Africa does not lack intellect or skill or even resources. One of the main thing that Africa lacks in my humble opinion is commitment and courage. Malcolm and Steve managed to effect major change over their societies at a time when freedom for black people was a myth told to children. They were both assassinated. But this wasn’t before the death threats and attempts on their lives while living in a society where police brutality was a way of life. I love the fact that courage such as theirs, especially in a day like today when we are much more free and doing much less with it, will forever remain in the history books to remind us that some people did it much tougher than we will ever have to.

5) They Recorded their Ideas: If the great African thinkers of the 20th century never recorded their ideas we would never have had exposure to Black consciousness movement or Afrocentric thinking or Pan-African ideas or dives into the intellects of Garvey, Frantz Fannon, Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere. Can you imagine how much hopeless life would be for a lot of Africans if this were so.

6) They Worked Together Across National Boundaries: A Pan-African state seemed like a very probable idea in the middle of the century. This is because the Bikos, the Malcolms, the Dr. Kings, the Nkrumah’s and the Nyerere’s had all recognized our shared struggle as people of colour worldwide and agreed that it only made sense for us to come up with a solution together. Though I don’t think the possibility of a Pan-African state or Pan-African identity is dead, these guys looked like they were about to make it happen.

7) They Gave Me Hope: Ultimately these guys gave a very lost teen some hope and helped restore some of the dignity that he had lost. They also excited me because through them I got the idea ingrained deeper into my head that one man’s actions can actually make a difference.

Please check out some of the work by some of these seminal thinkers and have that fire lit under your butt so you can go out there and make this world magnificent.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi X

PS: I would love to know people’s thoughts on this email I received regarding Biofuels and food security. So leave a comment or get in touch with me and let me know your thoughts.