#TEDGlobal2017 ends with Eighth Session – Manifesto | Highlights

Kenyan music group Sauti Sol opened the eighth and final session at TED Global 2017 in Arusha, Tanzania, performing three of their hottest numbers back to back — “Live and Die in Africa,” “Sura Yako,” and “Kuliko Jana.”

Sauti Sol performs at TEDGlobal 2017 – Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts – August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

The session themed “Manifestos” focused on taking all that has been learnt and using them to create solutions to change our world for the better.

Apart from being the only woman president in Africa, and the only Muslim female head of state currently in office, Maritius’ leader Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is also a biodiversity expert.

She is not new to the TED stage; in 2014, before she imagined she will be president, she delivered a TED Talk which focused on rare plant species from isolated islands and regions of Africa.

She discussed the shape-shifting benjoin; the baume de l’ile plate, which might offer a new treatment for asthma; and the iconic baobab tree, which could hold the key to the future of food. Plus: monkey apples.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim interviewed by Stephanie Busari at TEDGlobal 2017 – Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts – August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Gurib-Fakim had a sit down with CNN’s Stephanie Busari in this final session.

Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo is working to save endangered African languages one at a time.

She shared how speaking her mother tongue – Igbo – always landed her in trouble in school. “In many schools across Africa today, children are still being punished for speaking their indigenous languages,” she said.

Mbanefo has created micro-language lessons and illustrated dictionaries to help children learn the Igbo language. She said more languages are coming soon.

Clapperton Mavhunga speaks at TEDGlobal 2017 – Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts – August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

“The curriculum we are designing shifts attention from merely meeting the needs of foreign industry towards producing visionaries, critical thinkers, makers, and designers, to imagine and create new industry that meets the needs of society,” said Professor Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga who is urging African students and teachers to run toward problems, not away from them.

Dayo Ogunyemi speaks at TEDGlobal 2017 – Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts – August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

Dayo Ogunyemi said that while leapfrogging is cute, Africa must consider the necessary things needed to make this happen – stable power, water and connectivity to the continent.

After quitting his job in the city to go into farming, Kisilu Musya failing crops made it difficult for him to make money. Musya shared his challenges with farmers around him and discovered that the situation wasn’t unique to him.

Kisilu Musya speaks at TEDGlobal 2017 – Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts – August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

He decided to take some agricultural courses and discovered how climate change had shifted the realities of growing crops. With this new information, went back to his village do things differently. He got different, better results and decided to share the information with other farmers.

Emeka Okafor, Lolo Madikgetla, Kisilu Musya, Chris Anderson, and Kelo Kubu at TEDGlobal 2017 – Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts – August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Photo Credit: Ryan Lash/Bret Hartman/TED
Curated from TED Blog