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Recognition of an African identity and celebration of outstanding excellence in Africa is rare, if not counterintuitive. However, there has been a change since 2021: an opportunity to honour unsung heroes on the continent was established.
HONOURING AFRICAN UNSUNG HEROES
Year 2022 marks the second ceremony of the African Genius Awards. The awards celebrate unsung African heroes who have played a pivotal role in the innovation and development of the African continent. Thanks to
Dr. Sifiso Falala, founder of Plus 94 Research and the African Genius Awards (AGA), today’s African heroic accomplishments can be recognized and celebrated simultaneously.
Upon realizing that there were no accolades that honoured African geniuses, Dr. Falala decided to launch AGAs. It is a platform that aims to celebrate excellence, advance development, and economic change on the African continent.
“I have been observing with great anguish and pain our subservient position in society as Africans, especially here in South Africa. And the gap between the haves and the haves not. And I wondered why we have these major differences. I have been disappointed by the inability of those who are leading us to close the gap,” Dr. Falala told TransformSA.
“Our values need to be resurrected, so part of the narrative needs to be that we have lost our identity as Africans. We need to make declarations: One, we are African, two. It is unAfrican to be corrupt, it is unAfrican to be greedy, and it is unAfrican not to care about another person, because in Africa we have Ubuntu,” he said. The awards honour people of all ages who show exceptional skills. Nominations for the 2022 AGAs opened in October 2021 and closed on 30th January 2022. The public had a chance to nominate individuals they felt ticked all the boxes to become the next African genius. After receiving 60 nominations, the adjudicating committee gathered to shortlist 23 people.
The adjudicating committee consists of five reputable judges: Professor Tawana Kupe, who is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Pretoria, Professor Steven Friedman Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University, Dr. Pulane Elsie Molokwane a Nuclear Physicist and an Environmental Specialist.
Other judges include Fulufhelo Ntsandeni, a qualified Chartered Accountant, Simon Gathua from DaVinci Institute for Technology, and Dr. Rosaire Ifedi, an Associate Professor in the United States of America. Dr. Molokwane is a high achiever herself. Besides being a Nuclear Physicist, she is an Environmental Specialist with expertise in groundwater remediation, nuclear waste, process, and solid waste management.
Attesting to Dr. Pulane’s words, the AGA recognizes only the best of the best. Fortunately, the African continent is brimming with talent. Last year’s AGAs honoured the likes of Steve Biko, Chinua Achebe, Aliko Dangote, and other outstanding achievers.
Further asserting the criteria of candidates is Dr. Rosaire Ifedi. An academic of note and doyen who has travelled far and wide. “When you hear the word genius, I don’t know what comes up in your mind. But to me, it means unparalleled excellence. Or innovations that impact lives,” Dr. Ifedi said.
Part of the ‘genius’ criteria is identifying African problems and promulgating solutions for socioeconomic transformation.
“We look at exceptional achievers. The winners that we had last year would show you exactly what we meant by this and the standard that we set,” said Dr. Molokwane.
“We acknowledge high achievers, but we need more than just being a high achiever. You must have done something very impactful. Something that any other ordinary person would not achieve daily,” Dr. Molokwane added. “The accolades speak to the calibre of Africans who have risen to the top in their field who have done innovative things of expertise. These individuals have shown that they care about the people, so their work impacts the lives of Africans in one way or another. We need to show the good in Africa, that is my biggest buying point,” Dr. Ifedi said.
Dr. Ifedi came in as a new addition to the adjudicating judge panel for the second AGAs.
Other stalwarts joined her as industry contributors, including Dr. Steven Friedman, an academic catalyst focused primarily on democratic theory, economic growth, and social inequality.
According to Dr. Friedman, the continent isn’t where it should be, particularly if you look at the levels of poverty in the continent. “Is there a continent or planet where it wants to be? The answer to that is a resounding no. For example, there are many pockets of poverty in America,” said Dr. Friedman.
“To me, the question is why is this. Obviously, there’s a political explanation I would give, which I think is an important one. It has to do with the nature of the transition of Africa from colonial rule by Africans,” said Dr. Friedman.
“Independent Africa was a partial transition and is not independent as it should be. The other political issue is we moved from an unaccountable colonial administration to an equally unaccountable indigenous government when people have resources, they can use that to take an independent position, colonizers ensured that 99.9% of people didn’t have those resources,” said Dr. Friedman.
With optimism, Dr. Ifedi concurred: “We should never lose sight of how big the continent is. We should never take the whole of Africa as a monolithic and talk down about it. There is diversity in Africa; not every country suffers the same things. There are challenges, yes.”
“For instance, if you look at a country like Nigeria, which has so much potential but hasn’t reached where it should. Nigeria has all these excellent expatriates all over the world. Still, it has problems of poverty, ineffectiveness, and dysfunction in providing such essential needs as water, food, and electricity. That said, there’s so much innovation in Africa; people are creating non-profit organisations, helping out, taking care of the poor,” said Dr. Ifedi.
One of the judges, Simon Gathua, reflected on the continent: “Most countries have started to develop their policies in terms of socio-economic transformation. But the challenge that we have in Africa is the implementation thereof such policies; implementation has been quite poor. I’m happy that there have been some improvements. They may be sluggish, but our future seems promising. How soon we will get there will depend on our political maturity. We need to get Africa where it should be,” explained Gathua.
A sentiment shared by all the judges is that the endeavours of the continent depend on outstanding leadership, quality education, and economic growth.
One of the continent’s vast challenges stems from an education curriculum that doesn’t serve the needs of respective communities. Having observed this, Mr. Gathua implores transformation in education, by and large, the redevelopment of curricula and the qualifications provided by institutions of higher learning.
One of the objectives of the AGAs is to identify challenges that derail progress in the continent. Then come up with solutions to tackle those challenges.
“We want to bring these awards to change the narrative of self-actualization that Africa is not the dark continent. But it has everything it needs. That Africa can feed the world. My question is, why can’t we start now? Why can’t change start with you and me? And that can only start if we bring that selfconfidence and self-love,” said Gathua.
He explained the nomination process: “Anyone can nominate. And anyone is eligible to enter. You can even nominate yourself. We then go through a verification process to verify the claims. Because once you nominate someone, you need to motivate why someone is an African genius. Or what have you seen in the person that you believe this person needs to be recognized as an African genius?” said Gathua. and the judges get involved. The judges will get to the portfolios and go through them. The judges only adjudicate based on the testimonials and verified claims. We score based on the criteria that we use. But judging should always be independent; we don’t judge as a group; we judge as independents.”
“From there, we have the judge’s conference or workshop to consolidate data. To be an African genius, you should meet a certain scoring system. You need to score 90% and above out of 100 as a consolidation of the judges. Then you’ll get awarded as an African Genius on 25th May every year.”
Asked what kind of people they are looking for, another astute judge, Fulufhelo Ntsandeni said: “We are looking for someone innovative. A leader who has made a serious impact within the community they operate in and Africa. Someone who is globally recognized,” Ntsandeni is a chartered accountant by profession and serves as Executive Director at MIH Advisory.
“As an African child, you need to know that it is possible. For me, it’s important for those sitting in a garage trying to innovate and come up with ways of how we can be better as a continent. So, the awards are bringing such things to light. They are now exposing talent and genius characteristics available across the continent,” he said.
Ntsandeni said the continent is not where it is supposed to be, but there are stages. “Other welladvanced continents have passed through those stages which are still at infancy for our continent.”
“The long-term vision is to expose innovators and encourage upcoming brilliance to come to light. That is where the awards will help foster increasing innovation within the continent. It will bring pride to Africans in what we do and what we are capable of. It will help change the world’s perception of the African people. The long-term goal is to change the perception of the world around Africa. That we are brilliant, capable, and more than willing.”
“We can do better in dealing with socio-economic issues. To get there, we need to deal with how we govern the continent to have a fairer economic distribution system for the community. And for those who can contribute to our economic development, do so without any unfair hindrances that come to play,” Ntsandeni concluded.
Entries for 2023 awards will open again later this year.
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