We are the ones we've been waiting for | Farai Mubaiwa | TEDxFS

[Music] I'm black [Music] some people say Brown others will say chocolate then some others will use some nasty words I'm a woman some people say little girl others will say second-class citizen I am an African some people say corrupt most people say poor what a way to make everyone uncomfortable but you see I share these aspects of myself because before I was conceived the world decided how I would be treated and what the trajectory of my life should be the world has subconsciously influenced so many of you here today and how you perceive me and I make you uncomfortable for a reason I make you uncomfortable to show you that it is possible for young people to stand up and step up in their society to lead I am 23 I'm black I'm a woman and I'm an African and who would have ever imagined that I'd be in Frankfort today talking about youth empowerment see youth empowerment is not a choice for us and I say it's not a choice for us because every section of the world is falling apart we see genocide gender-based violence slavery poverty refugee camps attacks by extremists and despicable leadership and that's just naming a few and when I think of all these things happening in the world I always remember the words of Professor parking from the University of Cape Town she once told me we are the ones we have been waiting for and I say youth empowerment is not a choice because we are the ones we have been waiting for we are the have to step up in our societies and lead throughout my life they have been various experiences that have challenged me to stop waiting for other people to come with solutions and to make solutions myself and I'm sure that in your own life you've had experiences that have challenged you as well but were you still waiting for other people or did you step up and lead I'm gonna share three stories with you that encouraged me that forced me to stop waiting for others firstly when I was 10 years old my dad and I went to the shopping motor and some errands and it was a casual Sunday he parked his car and two seconds afterwards a white woman jumped out of her car and called my dad a kafir now Acathla in a South African context is a very racist word to use towards a black person and she called him a kafir or because she felt that she was entitled to a parking spot even though he got there first so today I don't wait we cannot wait today we see videos of police brutality in the States on black bodies today like many black people in the world I can't wait because all I want is to be recognized as a human in a world that chooses to see me as an animal when I was 12 years old I was innocently parading around the grocery store in a dress my mom got for me and a man gave me a look that I will never forget it was a look that sexualized me and at age 12 I recognized that look so today I don't wait we cannot wait we see statistics of gender-based violence every single day we've got high femicide rates in Mexico El Salvador South Africa India Hong Kong and so many other countries when I was 14 impersonating a British or American accent was one of my favorite things to do it sounds very weird I know and why and it's because quietly showed me through the media that being white and American or white and British was the most amazing positionality to have and in contrast being African and black was something to be ashamed of so today I don't wait I can't wait and in the two months that I've been pursuing my masters in London I have met incredible young Africans and when I share with them my passions for Africa's development they always say to me yeah well Africa has many problems I don't have time for that and so I've stopped waiting I can't wait anymore so the question then becomes what does it mean to stop waiting what do you do when you stop waiting what actions do you take and throughout my life again I've tried so many different things which I'm very excited to share with you I first went on to Twitter and Twitter is a fantastic platform because you get to write these short comments you get to hold leaders accountable you get direct access to high-profile individuals to challenge them on things my friends like to say yeah you get to slide into people's DMS you get to act people which is fantastic but how effective is Twitter how effective is it as a platform for social change and I understand that in some cases campaigns can be super effective and we've seen the power of hashtags and I get that if Twitter is used well and not to spread alternative facts something we can teach our current leaders about if Twitter is used well then it can have a great impact but to what extent then I went onto Facebook and Facebook is awesome because anyone who knows me knows that I love to write long paragraphs about things that I'm passionate about so Facebook allowed me to write thought-provoking statuses to challenge my friends and my followers and again I had to ask myself is this effective then we got facebook of videos where we could share about injustice around the world and change the narrative and that's cool but I asked myself again so you spend two minutes watching a video 30 seconds writing a short summation of the video and then you share it but is that impact how far does sharing an attn video go how many World Economic Forum videos do you have to share on your Facebook to properly affect tangible change then I said okay cool in addition to my keyboard warrior behavior which is a term I really love how can we how can I make tangible change so I decided I've got it I've got it I'm gonna work really really hard in university so that one day I can be financially stable enough to create some cool organization that's gonna change the world one day and I started asking myself again how can I wait for one day in a world that is telling me it needs me now is my degree shaping me to be a change maker oh is my degree shaping me so that I can be a great employee for the top consulting firms and I ask myself this every day as you can see I'm a very inquisitive person so my family gets very annoyed but these questions were super important and like so many of you here today I can relate I worked at Deloitte and had a fantastic time there and the whole time I was working there I asked myself how do I make tangible change how do I do this in addition to everything else I'm doing at work and these are pertinent questions I then went on to say cool as a young person the world is constantly telling me that you must wait until you've got seven years of work experience before you can be a change maker the world tells us that no unless you mature you can't start a business you need a seven page CV before you make tangible change how do we navigate ages complexities that seem to discourage young people now the one solution I do have for everyone in this room is pretty simple and it's not a solution that'll be liked by many politicians around the world but it's one that I'll gladly share with you we ignore these discouraging voices and we make change anyway ignore the voices that tell you that you can't do things just cause you're a young person and make the change anyway we are the ones we have been waiting for our world needs us now our world does not need us to follow this progression and in at some stage decide that we're gonna have impact I decided from a very young age that I was not gonna wait until I was 40 to do something cool to do something meaningful to change people's lives the one area that I was particularly interested in changing was of the perception of Africa to Africans now what does that mean right so for many of you here your perception of Africa is so different to mine we're fed that Africa's poor Africa's corrupt Africa's weak and I smile when I say that it's not because I agree but because I find it hilarious cuz my vision of Africa is so different I believe in an empowered Africa I believe in an Africa that's got potential for growth and I believe that it was possible and necessary for us as young people to step up and change that so I had no experience I had fears I had so much anxiety oh so much anxiety and so many doubts but I approached young people in my community and partnered with them and in particular one of the most incredible young people her name is Rianne Olivier Narayana and I together founded Africa matters Africa matters is a youth-led organization that is dedicated to creating spaces for young Africans to be empowered we want young Africans to change the narrative by reshaping the way we look at Africa by leading in our societies now and that means that we need to become active citizens we started this in university just two years ago and through our workshops and African feminism's summits on African Leadership School talks on youth empowerment and great online media presence in just over two years we've managed to Packt 15,000 african and diaspora and I think that's something and that shows you the power of young people who get together to make change a few weeks ago I sat in a lecture a development lecture a subject I loved and the professor said to the class you know guys from my research there'll be 30 countries in the world that will always be poor and I like oh okay and then he he was asked to give examples and he said oh you know Sierra Leone and those other ones okay so he alluded to the fact that so many countries in Africa would continue to be poor indefinitely and I felt three emotions then I thought anger I felt disappointment and discouraged I was angry at the colonial history that a stripped Africa Bay and left us economically backwards I was disappointed at the African leaders who have put forward their own agendas rather than the people that voted for them and I was discouraged because I thought to myself if this is what statistics say then what is Africa man is even doing can we really make an impact are we biting off more than we can chew and so I remembered these words we are the ones we've been waiting for and this sounds very non German I know because he gave me statistics but I said to him I reject your research I adamantly reject your research and I reject that research because I strongly believe in the power of young people around the world to change our societies Africa has over 220 million young people between the ages of 15 to 24 now that can either be a burden or an opportunity and I believe that it is more of an opportunity young people today have access to innovative resources that enable us to make tangible change globalization has completely shaped the way we interact with each other globalization allows us to share ideas knowledge and solutions I am studying in the UK because of globalization because my aim is to go back home and be like damn let's if let's effect this amazing change globalization is the reason I'm here today youth youth for advocates gives us these stats they say that 238 million youth live below the poverty line and of all the unemployed people in the world youth constitute 41% UNESCO goes on to tell us that in 2015 they were 1.2 billion youth this means that one in every six people on earth was a young person now I'd like to believe that all of us in this room have access to resources and opportunities that millions of young people around the world don't have and I'm including myself when I say all of us in this room have these opportunities so what are we waiting for why are we content being keyboard warriors why have we convinced ourselves that we can't do anything in addition to studying and I know studying is hard but we've got so many hours we can do so much our world needs us to step up society needs us now more than ever world leaders are getting younger and younger and if we are the ones we've been waiting for then we need to put that into action we all come from different communities that need some form of fixing whether it's creating an app that will encourage communities to go green or creating platforms for youth engagement in politics or going into schools and being a role model for young people because that's the one thing the world lacks its young role models who can cultivate a change in other young people there's something that we can all do in our societies and the most perception is that to effect tangible change you need to start big that doesn't have to be the case Africa Manor started so small we started as an online article sharing shindig and suddenly we grew and we grew and grew and this year has been a year of such success and we hope to grow from success to success the key is that you just need to start team up with young people share your skills share your passions and then seek wisdom from older people because their experiences can tell you what works what doesn't work can you try this but you be the one who's going to affect that change you be the one who is going to make an impact in your society I stopped waiting a very long time ago and if we are the ones we've been waiting for then my final question to everyone in this audience today is are you still waiting thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 25,569

Rating: 4.9299884 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Global Issues, Activism, Africa, Big problems, Change, Global issues, Impact, Movement, Youth

Id: lsJ_YkPD5PQ

Length: 16min 38sec (998 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2018