“We need to have ownership over our own narratives,” Danai Gurira told the audience as she spoke at a panel discussion on women’s empowerment at the inaugural TIME100 Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, on Friday. The actor, playwright, and United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador continued, “We have to embody our own paradigms. We have an unapologetic narrative that we need to share with the world.”
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Thank you all for joining us today.
00:02 We're going to get right into it.
00:05 Last year, the United Nations made the grim projection that based on current rates of
00:09 change it will take women 140 years to be represented equally in positions of power
00:16 and in the workplace.
00:18 How do we accelerate that transition here in Africa?
00:23 And Ma'elen, I think we should start with you.
00:27 I think we have to change the attitudes of men.
00:36 Men see women as equal partners, able to work with them to be able to achieve national and
00:47 international goals.
00:51 Second point is to increase the self-confidence of women so that they're able to determine
01:00 their goals and are willing to take that journey and face those obstacles.
01:07 And the third thing is collective action.
01:11 All women must come together to be able to promote gender equity, equality, opportunities
01:21 for everyone.
01:24 Those I think are what help us to be able to ensure.
01:28 And first of all, I don't believe that.
01:31 I don't believe it's going to take 140 years to get gender equity.
01:36 Much progress has been made.
01:38 We've faced some pushback.
01:40 We know that.
01:41 But I think generally, if you look around on the global architecture, you'll see that
01:48 women have made much progress.
01:50 And we have to celebrate the women who have been able to do that.
01:55 So solidarity and confidence.
01:59 I like that.
02:01 Cindy, leadership isn't always about positions of power.
02:05 In many parts of Africa, rural women face unique challenges when it comes to accessing
02:10 these opportunities.
02:12 How do you in your position address the specific needs of these women?
02:16 Thank you so much for that question.
02:19 As Madame President said, it's all about the narrative.
02:22 So when we talk about actually women living in the rural areas, these are narratives that
02:27 we have to change.
02:29 The biases, the traditional norms.
02:32 What are we understanding about this type of demographic that lives in the rural areas?
02:37 But more so in Africa, we need to invest, make sure that there is edible investment
02:41 in women that live in the rural areas.
02:44 We should improve more on the dialect of it.
02:47 They cannot continue being conferences and sit-downs without action.
02:51 So we need to implement.
02:53 We need to make sure there's impact.
02:55 But we also need to ensure that as women, we are stepping up and putting our foot forward
02:59 to support other women.
03:00 I am on this stage because Madame President paved the way for Danae and I to be here.
03:06 And that's exactly what we need to do.
03:08 And I think that's where it starts from.
03:10 In my organization, we've made it intentional to ensure that we work grassroots on the very
03:16 grassroots level with the very women that might not be visible to the regular person
03:21 in the urban areas.
03:24 So reaching out to everybody is the essential part.
03:27 Going far and wide.
03:29 And Danae, a lot of your plays and your roles are about powerful, strong women.
03:36 How do the arts open the door for change?
03:39 Yeah, I mean, it's very surreal to be sitting next to Madame President of Ellen's Relief
03:46 Shelton because the play that connects mostly with the issues that I hold very dear was
03:53 the play about women in Liberia during the war there, ending in 2003, in that moment.
04:01 And then the triumph of her coming to power and having the first woman head of state on
04:08 the continent, which meant so much to myself and those other African women around me to
04:14 have that as a precedent.
04:16 And a precedent is so important.
04:18 The aspect of narrative is so connected to that because when I -- being Zimbabwean and
04:24 also being American, I am always witnessing a very problematic aspect of how we are viewed
04:34 by the West, how we are perceived, and how that can often affect our own perceptions
04:40 because the West has such a hegemonical role in our culture, in our mindsets, in, you know,
04:50 economics.
04:52 So many aspects of life are affected by Western perception.
04:56 And so how we penetrate that perception is -- directly affects us and directly gives
05:03 us more confidence in who we are and in what we have to say to the world.
05:09 So I was shocked, the aspect of, say, a narrative like Black Panther, by how much playing a
05:16 woman general affected people I met on the continent.
05:21 And that to me also made it even more of a glaring, obvious thing.
05:26 Just Africans feeling very empowered by Wakanda was a very shocking -- it was shocking by
05:32 how effective it was.
05:33 It affected us.
05:34 It affected Americans.
05:35 It affected Westerner people.
05:37 It affected people in Asia.
05:39 People are now dressing up as these African characters celebrating that culture.
05:44 And to me, that is a very important aspect of our confidence.
05:48 I sat down with a group of women, young women, probably in their 20s, all in their 20s, early
05:54 20s, a friend of mine, I think he's sitting right there, Frederick Swaniker has a school
05:58 called ALU.
06:00 And I sat down with them in Rwanda, African Leadership University, here in Rwanda in September.
06:07 And their issue, they had the confidence, but it's true, they were not surrounded by
06:13 enough of a narrative that made them feel, you know, that they were supported in what
06:18 their ambitions were.
06:20 And that whole aspect of the men and how they still deal with -- if they speak out, they're
06:27 being countered by a male perspective that says, oh, you're being -- that mocks them.
06:34 That mocks them for being feminist.
06:36 There's like a mockery around a perception of having power in your voice as a woman.
06:44 And so that type of mindset, I think narrative, when I saw -- seeing the effects of even the
06:49 Wakanda stories, I truly do believe narrative is important to start to break that stuff
06:55 down for ourselves and for the Western perception of who we are.
06:59 >> So we need to imagine the future we want to see.
07:02 That's what art gives us.
07:03 >> Say that again?
07:04 >> We need to imagine the future we want to see.
07:06 And that's where art steps in.
07:08 >> But we need to have ownership over our own narratives.
07:12 I've had people come to me and they want to tell a story from the African perspective.
07:17 But they do it -- they want to do it in a way that pleases the West.
07:22 They want to tell a story like this one.
07:24 Like that -- like how the West did that.
07:27 And how they told that story.
07:29 And the heist or the police procedural.
07:33 We have our own paradigms.
07:36 And we have to embody our own paradigms.
07:39 And make sure that the world sees them.
07:41 And have an unapologetic expression of self.
07:46 That's when we get heard and when they hear ourselves.
07:53 >> Changing the narrative is probably the most important part.
07:55 But it's also the most difficult.
07:57 How do you grasp that and how do you force that?
08:00 In any of your roles?
08:01 >> Enforcing the narrative meaning that basically in my own position means that I step up.
08:10 And I always say to the people around me, our limits are self imposed.
08:15 Because once you change the self imposed limits that you have, you know that you can overcome
08:21 anything.
08:22 For many people who know about my story, I was homeless for quite a few times.
08:26 I lived on the streets of New York City.
08:28 I lived on the subways.
08:30 There's nothing remarkable about that.
08:32 But what's remarkable is the narrative that I brought onto myself is what made sure that
08:38 I paved the way and moved forward in whatever I thought.
08:42 And in doing that, I wanted to ensure that no one else, regardless of your background,
08:47 whether you're defined as African or a woman or anything like that, you own your story.
08:54 You know, I knew that from what was taking place in my life at that time.
08:58 There were people that came around, especially women, which is why I'm so passionate with
09:02 the work that I do.
09:03 I work a lot with women.
09:05 So that we can change that narrative about ourselves.
09:08 To say as women, we believe that we do not support each other.
09:12 People are telling stories about women to say women cannot work with each other.
09:15 But no, that's not the case.
09:17 We can and we're enabled.
09:18 We can lead.
09:19 We're sitting right here because of collaboration and so on.
09:22 So we can go on and continue talking about what are some of the barriers that don't propel
09:29 women or just don't propel us as a society in Africa or beyond Africa.
09:33 But honestly, it starts in your mindset.
09:36 When you don't impose limits on yourself, you're able to achieve anything.
09:39 And that's the narrative that we're putting in all the work that we're doing at Southern
09:43 Africa Embrace Foundation across the continent.
09:46 When we go to the very grassroots communities of the very marginalized that you can't even
09:50 imagine of coming across, we speak to them first about the narrative of what are they
09:55 telling to the world, the confidence that Madame President spoke about.
09:59 And that's where we start from.
10:01 And I think part of that also means seeing what you want.
10:05 So mentorship.
10:06 Absolutely.
10:07 Ellen, why don't you talk a little bit about the work you have done with finding mentorship
10:11 and mentoring the next generation of African leaders or African women leaders, I should
10:17 say.
10:18 I've dedicated the rest of my life to working for the promotion of women in higher positions
10:29 of leadership in Africa and across the world.
10:37 Using the examples of women who have challenged, who have, if I may use your word, unapologetically
10:48 sought higher positions of power, who have had the confidence to determine what goals
10:56 they want to pursue and the courage to be able to do it, to lead and to take action
11:05 wherever and challenge anything that stops it.
11:09 And so I've established a center for women and development whose objective is to identify
11:16 those young women, particularly in Africa, who have already shown that they have a path
11:25 toward a higher position of leadership in their countries, that they are prepared to
11:32 move along their journey and to overcome any possible obstacles.
11:37 And what we do is to show them the examples of those who have already achieved so much.
11:44 And we have so many women in all the countries of Africa.
11:47 You can identify so many of them that have also challenged, that have also achieved leadership
11:53 roles in their areas of endeavor.
11:56 And to use those as the example, as the role model that all these women can use.
12:02 And I must say that so many of these women, former women presidents, as few as they are,
12:09 but also those that are heading international bodies like the WTO, like the ECA, to be able
12:15 to use their examples, those women who set themselves up as being the ones to be able
12:25 to confront the obstacles, to be able to achieve.
12:29 And my center already has about 42 women, and we've identified in 19 African countries
12:35 that are pursuing their journey with difficulties, of course.
12:40 But I think that they're determined to overcome, they're determined to be it, and we see record.
12:45 And let me say one word about that to Rwanda, which has achieved so much in the women representation
12:55 in parliament, having the highest in the world, not just in Africa.
13:01 And there's so many other countries in our African countries that are close to being
13:06 50, and those are all the ones that have examples of strong women that have chosen their path
13:12 and that have stayed the course to achieve their goals with mentoring from other women
13:19 who have already achieved higher positions, willing to counsel them, to guide them, to
13:25 advise them, to provide them the examples that they need for them to continue to work.
13:31 And so let us all, you know, we celebrate that, and we want to see my center would like
13:38 to work with others.
13:39 The African Women Leaders Network have chapters in all the countries, they're pursuing common
13:45 objectives, and we're looking for all other groupings that have the same goals in mind,
13:53 that if we come together collectively, we can make such a big push so that that prediction,
14:01 in a short while, we can say that that prediction is now dead, and we have a new one that shows
14:06 a much more positive result from women leadership throughout Africa and the world.
14:18 We all want a positive story for women and in Africa, but we don't always get what we
14:23 want.
14:24 Danai, through your organization, Love Our Girls, and as the UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador,
14:31 you're probably the most aware of the many injustices that women and girls face on a
14:34 daily basis here.
14:36 What gives you hope and staves off frustration?
14:41 It's truly when you, I mean, the aspect of Love Our Girls is really, it's to advocate
14:46 for, it's actually to grow advocates, it's to grow activists, it's to have people understand
14:53 like this is what's going on, these are the champions who are battling against these things,
14:58 and they deserve to be celebrated and supported.
15:01 Maybe you don't know the statistics and the facts about what women deal with, and maybe
15:05 you don't know their story, and here's a way for you to get access to it.
15:10 That's what Love Our Girls does, it's to celebrate the work that's being done right on the ground
15:15 in these intricate ways that really pushes the needle forward.
15:20 What I've found is that is really very much a way of, you see these, what I've seen that's
15:28 very beautiful is how many women, just in this year alone, the amount of astounding
15:33 young women I have met.
15:35 I was just at the Gates Foundation's Goalkeepers, and I just presented an award to a 24-year-old
15:44 Cameroonian girl, woman, who is doing amazing work in midwifery and addressing the issues
15:53 of maternal health, post and prenatal health, and all birth care, et cetera.
16:00 She's done so much for so many women in the region that she is now being celebrated in
16:05 this way.
16:06 24 years old.
16:07 I met another woman from Rwanda, I've met her a few times, and she's an environmentalist,
16:12 and I saw her this year at the Global Citizen concert.
16:16 Actually I saw her also here at the guerrilla naming, but I saw her in the United States,
16:22 and I saw her in Paris.
16:23 She's everywhere, and she is at the Global Citizen concerts, and she is an environmentalist
16:29 who is really fighting for the developing countries to, the fact that they are dealing
16:36 with the worst effects of climate change, but the Western world is the one creating
16:40 the most climate change issues, and for that to be an accountability that is held, she's
16:46 got a massive petition going, and she's a massive advocate.
16:49 You see her everywhere now.
16:51 Then of course the women I met from across the continent when I was here in September,
16:58 from everywhere, from Zimbabwe to Rwanda to Ghana, and they're very clear on the problems
17:05 that they want to solve.
17:08 As ALU talks about, what's the problem, what's your mission?
17:10 They have a mission, and they know the problems.
17:13 These are the women whose voices we seek to amplify, because honestly the answers are
17:17 in their bosom.
17:18 People want to say, "Oh, let's go talk to some big fancy institution in the West.
17:24 Let's go talk to ..." It's like, no, no.
17:27 The answers are with the women who are on the continent.
17:30 They know the issues.
17:31 They've been through, they've seen the worst of it, and they know how to fix it.
17:35 If we continue to amplify them, we'll get somewhere.
17:40 That's where my hope is, because I'm seeing them come forward.
17:43 My goal and the goal of what I do is just how do we push that amplification more, because
17:48 the answer is on the continent, and it's in the bosom of women.
17:52 -That's on the side of advocates and activists, but small business owners are also really
18:01 important in telling the story and pushing that forward.
18:05 Cindy, do you want to talk about some of the work that you've done with them?
18:08 -Absolutely.
18:09 As I was sharing with you when we were backstage about the work that we recently started doing
18:14 with young entrepreneurs, with women farmers across the continent of Africa, and that's
18:19 in relation to how do we move Africa forward.
18:21 We know that at the current moment there's a big wave and the talk about the Africa Free
18:27 Continental Free Trade Agreement, which is definitely a tool that I believe as Africans,
18:32 especially women, we should be right at the very forefront, because that agreement alone
18:37 promises to take about 1.3 billion people out of poverty.
18:42 What we must also realize is that women are the stock exchange of Africa, because women
18:48 are the ones who are in informal trade, but at the very same time, women are the ones
18:53 who earn less.
18:56 The work that we're doing, we're centered on ensuring that the very people that will
19:00 move this Africa forward are the ones that are considered at the very top realm.
19:04 We've invested our time.
19:06 We were working with young people across seven countries in the SAADIC region, but now we're
19:10 moving into West Africa.
19:12 We recently launched a $5 million fund, very ambitious, I know, over two years, but we
19:17 hope that we're going to be able to achieve it, because as Danae was saying, we don't
19:22 want to be looking at the West.
19:24 We have everything that is in the continent.
19:26 We have ourselves.
19:28 If we do not put our foot forward to ensure that the work is done, then the work is not
19:32 going to move anywhere.
19:33 We're taking these entrepreneurs from the different countries within the continent and
19:37 connecting them with their other peers across Africa to show them that we can, together,
19:43 work and collaborate on this.
19:45 What exactly is this Africa free trade agreement all about?
19:49 How do we take it down from policy down to grassroots level so that they can take advantage
19:54 of it?
19:55 We're talking of free movement of persons.
19:57 That's very important in addressing many of the issues we have in Africa.
20:01 We're talking about tariffs.
20:02 We're talking about money.
20:04 I find in the African context, we're very afraid to talk about money, but we need to
20:07 talk about money, because if we don't have investments, our leaders, ourselves, our communities,
20:13 we need to invest in each other.
20:15 We are spending the next two years doing roadshows, visiting different communities, mainly in
20:20 the rural areas, finding the young people, the entrepreneurs, but also the women groups
20:25 that we can connect with and find out what is it that they would like to change and see
20:30 in their communities.
20:31 We're based in Toronto, Canada, but we're not bringing anything from Canada to say we're
20:36 telling the Africans this is what you need to do.
20:38 We are asking them, how do you want to see Africa move forward?
20:42 We're investing in that by making sure that they are part of this fellowship that we've
20:47 started and promoting those businesses and connecting the region to other regions in
20:53 the continent and see how that's going to improve.
20:56 We've seen quite a significant number.
20:58 We started with 12 women.
20:59 I was telling Anai backstage when we launched the organization, and now we're over to 28,000
21:04 women that we work with.
21:05 For me, that's tremendous.
21:06 Thank you.
21:07 [Applause]
21:08 >> So investing in women themselves and promoting that.
21:13 Thank you so much.
21:14 I think that's all the time we have for now, although I have many more questions for you.