The Africentric TED: The African Leadership Network conference
Fred Swaniker, Co-Founder & CEO of ALN, discusses the establishment and vision of ALN from African Leadership Network on Vimeo . Fred Swaniker, founder of the African Leadership Academy and the African Leadership Network, is no Afro-pessimist. In fact, I’d say he’s a real-world, internationalist example of an Afrofuturist, a true Imhotep-hop man. And while he’s busy building excellence, he’s also helping, among those who follow his example, to destroy two poisonous Western myths about the 54 countries of the African continent and their billion citizens. One myth serves self-described conservatives, and the other serves self-described liberals. The conservative myth is that Africans are so primitive and backward that they’re useless, and any attempt to save them is doomed. The liberal myth is that because Africans are so primitive and backward, they’re useless in any attempt to save themselves, and thus require the benevolent intervention of White saviours… including people who m...