9 Africans Announced as TEDGlobal 2017 Fellows | See Full List

Idea sharing platform TED has announced its fellows for TEDGlobal 2017 who will join an amazing lineup of speakers at the conference scheduled to hold in Arusha, Tanzania from August 27-30, 2017.

“This class clears a high bar of talent, creativity and eccentricity,” TED stated.

For the first time, there were representatives from Somalia, Uruguay, Liberia and Zimbabwe in the list which has 21 fellows representing 18 countries.

From a Somali computer scientist catalyzing the tech scene in Somalia and Somaliland, to a Nigerian designer who uses textile and apparel design to convey stories about immigrant populations to the Western world, and to the founder of Botswana’s first and only LGBT-themed theater festival, these fellows, together with other speakers will share ideas and create connections that will impact the African continent and beyond.

See the full list below:

Mennat El Ghalid (France | Egypt)
Egyptian microbiologist studying fungal infections in humans, in an effort to discover their causes and develop new treatments and co-founder of ConScience, a nonprofit dedicated to science education.

 

 

Robert Hakiza (DRC | Uganda)
Congolese co-founder of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID), which empowers refugees and builds community through vocational education, English classes, access to sports and computer literacy skills.

 

 

Saran Kaba Jones (Liberia | USA)
Liberian founder and CEO of FACE Africa, which strengthens water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa through the establishment of community-based WASH Committees and post-implementation support services.

 

 

Adong Judith (Uganda)
Ugandan director and playwright creating theater that promotes social change and provokes dialogue on issues from LGBTQ rights to war crimes.

 

 

Yasin Kakande (Uganda)
Ugandan journalist working undercover in the Middle East to uncover the human-rights abuses of migrant workers.

 

 

Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile (Botswana)
Writer, educator and founder of the Queer Shorts Showcase Festival, Botswana’s first and only LGBT-themed theatre festival.

 

 

Kasiva Mutua (Kenya)
International touring percussionist working to elevate the place of the African woman in music. Her performance style integrates African traditional music with modern styles such as jazz, hip-hop, reggae and zouk.

 

 

Carl Joshua Ncube (Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwean standup comic who uses his creative work to approach culturally taboo topics on the African continent.

 

 

Walé Oyéjidé (Nigeria | USA)
Nigerian fashion designer and artist who uses textile and apparel design to convey stories about immigrant populations to the Western world.

 

 

Nighat Dad (Pakistan)
Digital rights activist
Pakistani founder of the Digital Rights Foundation, a research and advocacy NGO that protects women and minorities from cyber harassment and defends their online freedom of expression.

 

 

Kyle DeCarlo (USA)
Policy influencer + healthcare entrepreneur
US co-founder of the Deaf Health Initiative (DHI), an organization working to make healthcare Deaf-friendly through advocacy, policy changes and the creation of new medical devices.

 

 

Abdigani Diriye (USA)
Tech entrepreneur + inventor
Somali computer scientist catalyzing the tech scene in Somalia and Somaliland through coding camps, incubators and accelerator programs. An inventor and advocate for innovation and research in Africa.

 

 

Susan Emmett (USA)
Ear surgeon
US public health expert and ear surgeon studying global hearing health disparities in 15 countries and Indigenous groups around the world, in an effort to fight preventable hearing loss.

 

 

Victoria Forster (UK | Canada)
Cancer researcher
UK scientist researching new treatments for pediatric cancer, drawing on her own experience with leukemia to investigate the devastating side effects of current therapies.

 

 

Mike Gil (USA)
Marine biologist + science advocate
US marine biologist who studies the way reef fish communicate — and what these social interactions mean for the future of our coral reefs.

 

 

Miho Janvier (France)
Solar storm scientist
French astrophysicist who works to predict “space weather” by studying the nature of solar flares and space storms, and how they impact planetary environments in our solar system and beyond.

 

 

Marc Bamuthi Joseph (USA)
Writer + performer
US artist and curator investigating cultural erasure through performance, ranging from opera to dance theater.

 

 

Romain Lacombe (France)
Clean air entrepreneur
French founder of Plume Labs, a company dedicated to raising awareness about global air pollution by creating a personal electronic pollution tracker that forecasts pollution levels in real time.

 

 

Christian Rodriguez (Uruguay | Mexico)
Documentary photographer
Uruguayan photographer exploring global gender and identity issues, with a specific focus on teenage pregnancy in Latin America.

 

 

Edsel Salvana (Philippines)
Molecular epidemiologist + activist
Filipino physician fighting the HIV epidemic by using cutting-edge molecular tools in order to predict which patients are likely to fail treatment.

 

 

Pratik Shah (India | USA)
Medical technology scientist
Indian scientist developing new artificial intelligence architectures for antibiotic discovery, faster clinical trials and non-ionizing clinical imaging devices that might one day replace dental X-rays.

 

 

Photo Credit: TED