How Africa can use its traditional knowledge to make progress | Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu

Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu wants to see Africans unleash their suppressed creative and innovative energies by acknowledging the significance of their indigenous, authentic knowledge. In this powerful talk, she shares examples of untapped, traditional African knowledge in agriculture and policy-making, calling on Africans to make progress by validating and dignifying their reality.

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[BiorArokMD]

This is by far the best TED talk by an African. She highlights perhaps the greatest challenges our generation faces going into this century.

[TheMrmoc]

Young African warriors are listening. Thank you.

[KwadwoOforiMensah]

This is why the great philosopher Bob Marley meant when he said: "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery". Look at everything we do as a people from a mainstream perspective, our system of governance, education, religion, marriage, language, judicial etc none of these are our traditional models or remote variations of them.

It might surprise some of you that there are Ghanaians born and raised in Ghana who has parents that forbid them from learning and speaking the local languages because speaking your own language in inferior and speaking English makes you smart etc.

This is the mindset that is truly holding us back.

Even Chinese food and other cultural restaurants in the US, adapt to the US culture, I mean they don't really sell traditional Chinese food in the Chinese restaurants. Similarly, McDonald's in China does not serve the same menu they serve in the US I believe.

That's what we should be doing, adapt and evolve instead of blindly following what the colonial masters left us, or our problems will never get solved. This was a great TED talk video, hopefully, the next generation are paying attention.

[joyejiofor]

Hi Chika, this is Uloma ABSU your room mate when you were a Public Administration student and made it to the best student as per your GPA upon graduation. By the way, I read Sociology Proud of you girl.

[ljubuntu]

Thank you sister, It was an extraordinary African speech. I firmly believe in the greatness of Africa. I love our continent.

[hyacinthdibley]

It's like taking a bat to someone's head. EVERY WORD she said and how she said it hit me really heard.
I am thankful for her existence, her research, and her speech. Definitely an eye opener.

[uweratryb]

i was born and raised in Kampala Uganda. i still live there. in nursery school we are taught about alphabets using European items
what hit me most as a toddler was when y was for yacht. wtf it looked weird like those yachts of sailing competitions. fast forward to secondary school we are taught European and north American geography. we studied Canadian prairies and the Rhine region for 2 years and also European history like world war 1 and 2. we are landlocked country but we studied fishing in the Atlantic. 2 years of something i will never do. and then am expected to compete with someone who was actually studying about his country.

we were taught the ADVANTAGES of coming EUROPEAN MISSIONARIES!!!!. not what was good about our own technology.
the major reason we are so poor is we are playing catch up with western civilization.
the only reason we failing to advance is we trying to copy systems that aren't ours.

but people in the west sit and think anything other than theirs is wrong. they say we are lazy and greedy people but they force us to implement their laws.

Belgium cut off aid because Uganda was sentencing homosexuals to prison without knowing they were sending convicted pedophiles . people get only a piece of the iceberg and make blunt comments and stupid conclusions .

the worst part is people like these create fear in the west. they see someone who says their might be a better way as enemies of their civilization

[dalitsozulu]

This is a Great approach. We as Africa can provide solutions to our problems by advancing our traditional skills in Agriculture, Engineering, Medicine, Governance etc, we already have traditional methods that have been tried and tested. its a wake up call to all of us.

[jellanepamaran]

I am a watching this because of the grade 8 module activity...
Search for Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu's speech, " How Africa Can Use Its Traditional Knowledge to Make Progress". Pay attention to the stance and behavior of the speaker, then explain why the stance and behavior of the speaker is effective or not..
I didn't expect, this is so interesting.. I'm from Philippines by the way👍👍👍💕

[KristinPedemonti]

Brilliantly stated! Indigenous knowledge is so very valuable and we must listen!
For years, I wanted to work at the World Bank to assist staff to communicate more clearly, to LISTEN more and INCLUDE local knowledge on their projects and processes and procedures. Finally in 2015, I was hired as a Storytelling Consultant. I am also seeking for them to tell a different story, one which HONORS the people whom they serve globally. Since 2015, I have asked every team I work with the following questions: "Are you including local people on your project so you can listen and learn from them and tap into their wisdom and knowledge?" "Are you honoring the people to whom you are in service?" "Are you listening?" Things have improved, but there's a long way to go!

[nazeerahmedsonday]

African land-area specific traditional farming knowledge is relevant today. This talk is decolonising farming. Beautiful

[mobk]

Wow. Goosebumps. Tears. What A Woman. This needs to go viral. Thank you Chika. May God Bless You Richly.

[TheShayona]

I have never looked at our education system this way. This is eye opening. A should be for Africa or something!

[funprints]

The fact that this type of vital information gets 46K views while WizKid videos gets 100 million views is part of why we're where we are

[aniabell]

The first and most bending symbol of the slave master is that cross, the sooner we realize what gate that crossed opened the sooner we can close that gate and move forward in purity of spirit.

[brendarua]

What a wonderful presentation! She has a perspective that offers insights on a wide range of subjects. Thanks, TED!

[GoodVibes]

Amazing, I'm truly appreciative to have find this video on Youtube.This women not only that she's extremely beautiful and smart  but she's also a source of inspiration of what could be done in Africa and as an African myself it  makes me happy that Africa contains such smart people for his future.

[hillario]

Jealous pundits hate this video. They hate to see anything good about Africa.
Thumbs up to the African lady thumbs up.

[ivonnek]

Wao, this is brilliant! True daughter of our land. I am inspired and so proud of what we are; A people pregnant with civilization...we must revisit our roots.

[sheila]

Taking notes..
Why is mpesa so successful and has ended up inspiring the cash app to be adopted in the rest of the world? It was an original idea as a solution to the need of a Kenyan to have quick access to money, no Western/eastern anything, provided our solution to our problem and what a success it is!