The pursuit of collaborative success.

At the sidelines of the last World Economic Forum on Africa in 2019 B.C. (Before Coronavirus), my good friend and newly appointed Heavy Chef Foundation chair, Lukhanyo Neer introduced me to Fred Roed & the crew. This multi-stakeholder dialogue and the months-prior Davos conference on “Achieving a Single African Market” affirmed my establishing of the research and management consulting firm, Unpacking Africa 4.0 #WEF #AfricaWeWant

Thabo Mbeki Foundation & Heavy Chef 4th Industrial Revolution in Education report launch & panel discussion

My Chumy, Lukha convinced me to moderate a Thabo Mbeki Foundation curated phenomenal panel around education and the 4th Industrial Revolution (South Africa’s context) as part of a reflective report his team and my edu Kanea co-founder, Zinhle Mkhabela authored. #Education #Kanea #4IR #AfricaWeWant #DSYInspireSessions

H.E. Thabo Mbeki, ministers, dignitaries, panelists, and Heavy Chef guests. #DSYInspireSeries

Fast-forward to an exploratory partnership between Heavy Chef x Unpacking Africa podcast during Covid-19 imposed lockdown now 2020; moderating conversations with former president H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo on the promise of industrialized agriculture at-scale in Africa, Brenthurt Foundation’s Prof. Greg Mills lessons learned from his book The Asian Aspiration to engagement with pre-billion-dollar-valuation of GB Agboola’s Flutterwave, futurists Dion Chang & the erudite Brownyn Williams on what is next in tech & beyond; and other phenomenal guests. #UnpackingAfrica #HeavyChef

Heavy Chef recipe loading…#CollaborativeSuccess

Over this weekend, it has been a privilege to honor Heavy Chef’s invitation to share my recipe on a professional (and in some ways personal) life hack on fostering, engaging with, and participating in relevant “Communities.”

May you find communities that support you.

May you engage with communities that validate you.

May you be enamored by communities that embrace you.

May you be vulnerable to find communities that challenge you.

Ultimately, may you be open to the unexpected opportunities that local, regional and international communities avail to you.

Heavy Chef crew Fred, Zsuzsa, Randall & Gamor

If you are looking to plug into a leading community of entrepreneurs from South Africa to the world, check out my peoples www.heavychef.com and our recipes. #Community #EliuGift #TeachGamor #GamorLegacy

#ShamelessPlug Do join our KukuZafest Podcasters community to amplify voices through podcasting here.

“Your work is your own private megaphone to tell the world what you believe.” — Simon Sinek

Be well, be safe, be loved.

Originally published to Unpacking Africa newsletter’s 15,000 + subscribers on March 30, 2021.

 

One of the impactful lessons I picked up during my time teaching Entrepreneurial Leadership at ALU in Mauritius, was the constant need to foster a growth mindset. The intentional ability to keep dreaming and the consistent effort in bringing these dreams to life!

You could briefly join me in today’s exercise on exploring your own moment of having a growth mindset. If you may kindly take a quick moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and allow your mind to settle. Then, respond privately or aloud to this prompt:

In the absence of all that is happening and all my responsibilities, and limitless resources, what is the one thing I can dream up and create, today? Something audaciously impactful, and rewardingly personal.

You should write your answer down and refer to it often, creating little achievable tasks to achieve your and let’s reconvene on your progress. I’ll be happy to be your accountability buddy.

My dreams are most often times dipped in culture, expressed in melodies, colored in curated experiences, and only tempered by the need to wake up, eventually. This year, I have the privilege of joining Andani.Africa and the University of Johannesburg to exploring “Futures & Beyond” 2-day summit Where Creatives and 4IR meet on the 16th & 17th of March. I am giddy to share on Culture, Creative Arts, Connectivity & Commerce with further details here.

Andani.Africa x UJ Arts & Culture (FADA)

If the intersection of re-imagine Africa’s contributions to digital and the appreciation of our cultural heritage through the digital arts is your jam as much as mine, then it would be an honor to have you join us!

“Connecting the dots: Culture, Creative Arts, Connectivity & Commerce.” E. A. Gamor

Besides the Unpacking Africa lens, I shall be engaging our audience on the untapped, underexploited economic and innovation opportunity that exists in our creative manufacturing and artisanal spaces; while sharing the relevance of Africa’s poignant contributions that have recently taken space on digital entertainment consumption during the pandemic with Beyonce’s Black is King, Apple’s Prince G iPhone photography campaign, Netflix’s Bridgerton, Afrobeats, and provocative colorful design.

In spite of the challenges we have all had to face this and last year, I have also allowed my dreams to permeate my reality, and have taken on earnest the opportunity to assist our creative manufacturing and hand-made products sector more intentionally with my skills, network, and resources. More on my theory of change with the Eliu Gift Hub here:

My dream and earnest hope are that with this love-offering of curating cultural communities that create bridges in dismantling challenges in commerce from Africa to the world, we are able to unearth even more talents that express the gift of giving.

In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, a trans-generational icon and barrier-shattering-artist, Stevie Wonder matter-of-factly shared “I wanna see this nation smile again; and I want to see it before I move to Ghana because I’m going to do that.” urged on by Oprah he also shared “I don’t want to see my children’s children’s children have to say, ‘Oh please’, like me. ‘Please respect me, please know that I am important, please value me.’ What is that?” Link to the full interview for context here.

In my lived experience, my culture has always valued me, it has shielded me, it has protected me especially in spaces that have been contentious and unappreciative. And as I continue to future-cast the world I also want my children to thrive and succeed in; I cannot dream up of a better way than to connect our dots in cultural heritage as we negotiate our place in a more equitable world. Join us.

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Carl Gustav Jung

Be well, be safe, be loved.

Originally published to Unpacking Africa newsletter’s 15,000 + subscribers on March 03, 2021.

Episode 4 — The Black Lives Matter movement #BLM, rekindled by the unfortunate death of many black people, most noteworthy the 8 minutes 46 seconds knee-on-neck strangulation of George Floyd has the entire world interrogating racism and colonial structures that have, and continue to, disenfranchise blacks and Africans across the globe.

This episode, “Black Enterprise” features two phenomenal minds in business enterprise: Zimbabwe-born Brian Mushongera who is business development for Code4Kids in South Africa and his outfit uses the lockdown during Covid-19 to create a digital meeting application: Room.sh, and Nike Anani Nigerian, UK-raised next-generation business coach, mentor, and co-founder of Africa Family Firms.

They both share authentically about the current situation for African businesses, they delve deeper in addresses social issues such as black lives matter, gender-based violence, the role of men from Brian’s perspective in South African; and in Nike’s instance, the legacy she is leaving with her young sons from Nigeria to the world.

This episode was particularly personal to me as I share my father’s legacy and how a social enterprise, Urithi Labs, is the best way I also know how to pass on skills, talents, and knowledge to the now-generation of young doers.

To listen on Apple, Google, Spotify, or Anchor — please do well to subscribe. I would appreciate it if you kindly share the pod, and this newsletter widely within your network and/or with someone else.

Episode Links

Brian Mushongera’s LinkedIn
Code4Kids: www.getcode4kids.com | Room.sh: https://room.sh

Nike Anani’s website
Africa Family Firms: www.africanfamilyfirms.org

Urithi: www.urithimedia.com

www.4irAfrica.co | @4irAfrica_

We are in this together.

Be safe, be well, be loved.

Originally published to Unpacking Africa newsletter’s 15,000 + subscribers on July 7, 2020.

In adjusting to this “new normal” I have found it comforting to hear from peers also navigating through these hours-days-weeks-all-meshed-in-one virus prevention routines. With a myriad of different government regulations on lockdown and economic recovery, it is equally important to ask what is happening in our education ecosystems affecting the millions of us in continuous learning and teaching programs with a global impact on the lives of millions of children across the world…

Learning Journeys: this episode engages 3 African professionals, 2 of whom are Ph.D. candidates: Zinhle Mkhabela, a Measurement and Evaluation practitioner in South Africa, Kwabena Boateng, a collaborator on Pan-African education ecosystems in the United States and Fauzia Issaka, an International Development consultant & doctoral student in the United Kingdom.

🎙Unpacking Africa podcast is available on Apple Podcasts Spotify & Google Podcasts

We get to hear their prospects on the challenges the pandemic has presented in their own academic lives — as well as their students; pain points in digital access on educational systems; and the opportunities in future-casting post-Covid educational journeys that highlight solutions among likely allies. With cross-collaborative programs with universities on the African continent and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States of America as a primary example. While you listen to this edition, you might as well grab a cup, lean back, and lean into their intriguing insights.

www.4irAfrica.co | @4irAfrica_

Be safe, be well, be loved.

Originally published to Unpacking Africa newsletter’s 15,000 + subscribers on May 12, 2020.