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00:00Hello, everyone. Our guest today is none other than Kenya's Ambassador to Rwanda, Janet Mwawasi-Oben.
00:08She is joining us today to reflect on Africa's progress and common challenges facing the
00:14continent as the world prepares to mark Africa's Liberation Day on Saturday. The celebrations
00:21in the country are being spearheaded by the Pan-African Movement Rwanda Chapter. Welcome.
00:28My name is Wycliffe Nyamasege. Thank you very much, Wycliffe. Yeah. How are you, Madam Ambassador?
00:34I am very well, thank you. As Africa celebrates Liberation Day on Saturday, May 25th, what
00:41are some of the achievements the continent can celebrate after more than six decades
00:46of independence? Thank you very much. As we all know that 25th of May is a great day for
00:54Africa because that was the time that the Organization of African Union was incepted.
01:01And now, of course, you know, moving on to the, you know, African Union. So it's a big
01:08day for Africa. And we have a lot to celebrate, despite our challenges as Africa. Since its
01:15inception, we've seen Africa grow from strength to strength from the period of colonialism,
01:23because 1963, 25th of May, really, is when most African countries got or gained independence.
01:30So to date, after 61 years, we have made tremendous improvements as Africa. We have challenges,
01:39yes, but we must celebrate this day. We, when we look at some of the progress that Africa
01:46has made since, we can look at things like the African free continental trade areas,
01:58where African countries are able to freely trade. Of course, that has not been fully
02:04achieved, but it's been progress, great progress since that time. We have the Africa CDC through
02:12the African Union, where public health has also really been focused on. And this really
02:19grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, where, you know, our African member states for African
02:26Union have come together to look at solutions for public health. We have seen women being
02:34included in, on the economic and financial, you know, table, and most African countries
02:41have, you know, made tremendous efforts to include women in decision making tables, that
02:48was not there previously. We've seen growth in infrastructure, we still have a long way
02:53to go. But, you know, we have growth in our, you know, road systems, air, water, so great,
03:04great strides there. And also in education, you know, we are coming from a place where
03:11we inherited an education system that was purely based on religion for starters. But
03:17we've seen African states growing from that, still so much to be done. But education has
03:24also grown over the years. So there's a lot to celebrate. And I believe that's what we
03:28should be celebrating this year.
03:31Despite the continent achieving independence more than six decades ago, it remains one
03:37of the least developed continents around the world. What went wrong?
03:43The hindrance has mainly been because we have largely been a colonized continent. And so
03:50our natural resources have been over exploited, you know, by the our colonial masters and
03:56as well as the West. So we've benefited very little from that. And now that we are independent,
04:03we still have our natural resources, even though they are depleted. But one of the problems
04:10with our natural resources is that most countries or the countries that are very well endowed
04:14with natural resources, focus a lot on solely the natural resources, and that impedes progress
04:21in other areas. So you find a country that has natural resources or minerals really just
04:27focusing on that, to the detriment of other growth areas like infrastructure, you know,
04:34digital economy, agriculture. So that is one of the challenges that we've had as Africa.
04:41The other one is poor governance systems in our member states or in our countries, African
04:49countries. We have corruption in Africa, we have institutions that are not accountable.
04:56That has also really impeded, you know, growth to full potential for Africa. We have infrastructure
05:04issues where our roads, our rail, our air, energy is not fully developed. So that also
05:12puts us in a place of disadvantage as compared to maybe, say, the Western countries. We have
05:20political instability in many times when we go into elections. You know, there's one person
05:27feeling like they have not really been served justice. So that also causes problems for
05:33African countries. We have civil wars, we have armed conflict. All those issues really
05:41have played a big role to impede growth for African states. When we look at education,
05:47our education system also needs a lot of improvement, poor quality health care. And one really big
05:56issue is climate change. We have countries that are really affected by climate change.
06:01In Kenya, just recently, we had floods. We've had drought and hunger in Southern Africa.
06:08So those challenges really have seen Africa not grow to its full potential, despite the
06:15fact that they have very many natural resources.
06:19What steps do you think are necessary for Africa to achieve full economic and political
06:26independence?
06:28Thank you very much. There's a lot that Africa can do to achieve full independence, because
06:34we can say that Africa is, yes, it's independent, but it's not independent. And one of the things
06:41that I believe that can make Africa achieve full independence is developing indigenous
06:48solutions for Africa, solutions that are tailored for Africa, so that we are able to grow economically
06:59in terms of building industries that can process our natural resources, for example. We also
07:07need a workforce that has critical skills to compete globally, because the world has
07:18really moved in terms of education and skills. So we need a critical workforce that has critical
07:25skills, that are technologically able to handle the technologically advancements that are
07:34a reality today in the world. We also need, agriculture is big in Africa. We need modern
07:41agricultural techniques to better agriculture in Africa so that we improve on our food security.
07:52We need to come together and come up with policies as African nations, economic policies
08:01that serve us as Africa, so that there's economic, social economic growth and improvement
08:09in trade. And one other thing that we need is peace and stability. We have states that
08:16are still in turmoil in terms of being peaceful with each other. So we need to also come up
08:26with ways to solve our peace and stability issues in Africa. And if we do that, then
08:32Africa, I believe, will have moved many steps ahead towards achieving independence, full
08:39independence as a continent.
08:42The theme for this year's celebration is focused mainly about building resilient education
08:48systems. Which areas in education do you think we should improve on as a continent to get
08:55to the standards of the developed countries?
09:00I think that we need to focus on, you know, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM.
09:12And I've seen many schools, or a couple of schools in many countries are moving towards
09:18that. Even here in Rwanda, there are a couple of schools that are offering that sort of
09:23education. So we need to move from an education system that was purely based on religion,
09:30that's the colonial system that we inherited, into a system that focuses on technological
09:39advancements and growing skills for innovation for our youth and our students in Africa.
09:45So I think when we focus on that, I believe we'll be at a good place to have a skill
09:52workforce that is able to compete, not only to grow Africa, but also to compete globally.
10:00Thank you, Madam Ambassador.
10:02Thank you very much.
10:03We are more than glad to host you today.
10:05Thank you.