Africa
#TEDxNairobi 2012: A Recap
Dubbed 'Stories by the Campfire', the third edition of TEDxNairobi celebrated the raconteur by challenging some of the nation’s best orators on the theme of reviving the long lost art of conversation. Below are some highlights:
- The event began with a showcasing of Chris Abani's inspiring TED Talk on Telling stories of our shared humanity. It's "ubuntu," he says: the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.
- Some highlights(and a link to the talk below):
The world is never changed in giant,Messianic gestures..but by simple,almost invisible acts of compassion. Chris Abani #TEDxNairobi- You can stitch your heart against any kind of horror,but the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger can unstitch it. #TEDxNairobi
- First speaker was Ngwatilo Mawiyoo, poet and performing artist, who explained her This Kenyan Life project in which she's to spend 200 days with 20 diverse rural Kenyan families' and what inspired/motivates her to keep at it.
- To decide who's suffering we care about,is to define ourselves and our communities. Via @ngwatilo #TEDxNairobi
- Upon completion of her #ThisKenyanLife project,@ngwatilo will use poetry and power of words to tell the stories often untold. #TEDxNairobi
- #ThisKenyanLife is about our people in the present,about the different experiences of our countrymen,and ourselves. @ngwatilo #TEDxNairobi
- It's one thing to mourn the loss of income,it's a greater tragedy to repeat it. Profound words by @ngwatilo.#TEDxNairobi #ThisKenyanLife
- Poetry is a way of knowing,storing up knowledge. Poets mediate between the dead and the unborn. Via @ngwatilo #TEDxNairobi
- Art funding considered irrelevant in this country, an atrocity,I dare say. Cc @ngwatilo #TEDxNairobi insights.
- Kenya,as we know it,cannot thrive unless we learn to care for one another. Via @ngwatilo #ThisKenyanLife #TEDxNairobi
- She was then followed by film maker/storyteller Wanuri Kahiu with a talk entitled Afrofuturism and the African. (More on Afrofuturism here.)
- #Afrofuturism: Speculative,science fiction,legend referring to Africa,her diaspor(i)ans and black people in general. #TEDxNairobi
- @wanuri's interest in #Afrofuturism was stirred by her pediatrician/storyteller mother,whose stories were truly fictional. #TEDxNairobi
- Ben Okri,one of @wanuri's inspirations was passionate about #Afrofuturism; Africa's had the notion as part of our culture.#TEDxNairobi
- Zulu Shaman, Credo Mutwa believes on a reptillian takeover of Planet Earth(search for #TheReptillianAgenda.) #Afrofuturism #TEDxNairobi
- Using #Afrofuturism to stake a place in the storytelling of our own continent,offers @wanuri #TEDxNairobi
- 'We can't reclaim history,but we can project our future'.#Afrofuturism. Case-in-point,our music, @justaband's Huff+Puff cited. #TEDxNairobi
- We use technology invented outside of our (African) space to tell our own stories. #Afrofuturism #TEDxNairobi
- Pumzi: The outside is dead. Life and sacrifice. We have to mother Mother Nature,offers @wanuri #Afrofuturism #TEDxNairobi
- You can check out Pumzi's Trailer here.
- Mugo, in Agikuyu history predicted the coming of the white man as colourful butterflies. Via @wanuri #TEDxNairobi. (Storytellers as seers).
Did you find this story interesting? like or comment as 2 already did!
Liked!
- Nanjira SambuliMost welcome, it was an interesting event,well worth capturing and full of ideas worth spreading! 2012-07-14T23:55:54.808Z
MadebeThank again for an informative storify with enough tangents to keep me occupied Sunday morn2012-07-14T23:09:57.036Z
- Nanjira SambuliMost welcome, it was an interesting event,well worth capturing and full of ideas worth spreading! 2012-07-14T23:55:54.808Z
- MadebeThank again for an informative storify with enough tangents to keep me occupied Sunday morn2012-07-14T23:09:57.036Z
