The rise of Young African entrepreneurs

Most of the young people I have met lately, are speaking of starting their own business or organization straight from college. I'm thrilled at the progress our continent is making in encouraging entrepreneurship in all its forms. For the past few years youth unemployment has grown drastically and it has been really hard to survive in these trying times. Most young people have resorted into opening their own charities and businesses.

 I'm a big supporter of new business ideas in action and I applaud those who are taking a step towards creating their own employment and for others. It's a new generation of ideas and startups. Most of our parents are in shock at the progress we have made. In most ways they are proud of this boom of new businesses. But wait a minute, are we missing something here? As much as there are a lot of new babies, how many are really strong enough to survive beyond the five year mark?

Yes financial resources are essential for sustainability but the greatest strength of every organization lies in the strength and quality of its workforce. Everyone seems to have this desire to have their own business, something that has their name on the front door. That is a great dream to have. However, not many people have the kind of financial muscle required to realize that dream. Unfortunately, few young people actually consider creating a business partnership and adding value to the long term significance of their company.

For instance, there are more than 15 young upcoming music producers in a township in Blantyre. Each one has enough money to record in their bedroom, if three people combined resources they would open a studio at the trading center and if seven combined resources, we would find them in their own studio in Limbe (a business center in Malawi) with more customers. I tell you what; most young people hate the idea of having someone to be accountable to. See, most of our young people have abandoned the basics of learning from the gurus in the business.

There are a few ways of achieving that, to be precise getting you a mentor, reading and getting a job. Yes I said it, get a job!! Look it doesn't have to be full time. You can volunteer or work as an intern. Most companies will be happy to take you on board in that capacity. I know you hate working for someone but guess what it's one of the most classic and best ways to learn. Don't be ashamed to have a boss, someone you are accountable to, it is key to your big dream. Don't be too greedy to avoid working with others with a similar dream. If you don't have enough money to start, try getting a business partner, choose wisely and make it legally bound. The combination of your unique capabilities and your partner's is good for business. Even married couples agree to this.

Startups are risky in themselves. Most of us are still scared to start. However, if you ever want to make it worthwhile, make it a point to learn from the best in the business. Life is a process. If you jump a step, you might have to pay dearly for it or even worse still go back to it later. Don't rush, take one step at a time and learn as much as you can.

Please write your experiences, we need to create reading material for the next generation of African entrepreneurs.
Young African entrepreneurs are the future of African economy, if we work on sustainability.
#writeyourjourney

Self love Africa

Over the past year I cut my long relaxed hair and embarked on a journey to embrace my natural hair, from an Afro to locks.  It has been a journey of self-discovery and for the most part, the discovery of stereotypes connected with "looking very African" as it is referred to nowadays. They ranged from looking artistic, weed smoking, unprofessional and many more. One classic comment I have heard over and over again is how I will attract a white man. How my African look will dramatically turn me into an attractive gem for white men in particular. Nothing wrong with interracial relationships but still it baffles me really, I look more African and somehow I’m more attractive to a white man than a black man? Hmm. Being called beautiful is a big thing for most women. It feels nice to be called beautiful. Growing up I remember, hearing sentiments like " so and so has a beautiful sister, so fare in complexion. Mostly when boys talked about dark skinned girls they would say she is a "black beauty". If at all they had to qualify it as if beauty only meant being light in complexion. These are just typical examples of how our minds are still far from emancipation. For a long time black women have been fed lies about how a lighter complexion and long straight hair will make you look more beautiful and professional. We have spent so much money buying skin bleaching products that burn our skin and expensive hair just to fit in. I know some women just love that kind of look and that's still okay but don't do it on the basis of hating your natural self just because someone told you it wasn't good enough. Our black men also have been conditioned to like our evolved version than our dark skin and kinky hair. We have somehow been brought up to believe that everything white is beautiful and everything black is primitive. We called everything nice and modern "chachizungu".  We marveled at how everything white was better and lost our own identity and heritage as a people. For so long, we have studied the history of other continents and failed to embrace our own. Our libraries are filled with books written about us by outsiders. Our own African artists and writers have failed to make it on the continent because somehow their work has been dimmed too African to be attractive to fellow Africans. Doesn't make sense, does it? I know but it’s true. This week we commemorated the Africa day on May 25th which we don't take seriously or worst still have no idea it exists. Our early African leaders who we hold in high regard had envisioned a united Africa but we love and celebrate the unity of others but fail to foster our own.  Our presidents are seldom held accountable by African treaties. When are we going to champion solutions for Africa by Africans? We are not saying we hate other races we just want to love and appreciate ourselves as much as we have worshiped others for far too long. Through the years the white race has been regarded as the pure race and the women being treated as second class earth citizens.  We cannot arrive towards our potential as a people if we keep addressing one set of oppression and leaving another. If you believe in the dignity of the human race it must be a wholesome view, for all in some form or another create in us a fear to respect others and afford their rights and dignity. Sadly it also causes us to hate who we are, something we did not choose at all. Racism, sexism  are the main reason for our lack of progress, just because someone somewhere used some well thought calculated ideologies to paralyze our progress. We follow in the footsteps of the oppressed yet we worship the very ideologies that shackled us for centuries. My goal this year is to fully embrace myself as a black African women, I have been what I'm not, now let me find myself. I'm starting a campaign to encourage our younger generation to read our history called Self-love Africa. Please share this article on social media and #SelfloveAfrica. Remember to read black history and don't hesitate to share any books or materials you have with fellow Africans using the hashtag. Join the movement!!! 

Love and Religion

Yesterday I met my friend with her father, he had come to visit and went to church with her. It melted my heart so much so that I started to get emotional simply because the father belongs to another church but said he came in support of his daughter. In that instance, this loving father restored my hope in humanity. Looking over my own life and the things I have gone through because of religion. How families have been broken all in the name of " I don't approve of the church you go to nowadays" is very heartbreaking. People are so obsessed with following what their religion says as opposed to doing what's right. I believe love should be our anthem not doctrine. Love is inbuilt, we all have it within us and is the only way to whichever heaven you believe in. I believe everyone should be left to worship what they are convinced keeps them sane. The whole purpose of having something to believe in is to feel a sense of belonging and the comfort that comes with transferring  responsibility to another higher power than oneself(whichever name he bears in your context). Since we are all different, we can't find these things in one place. Consequently some will choose  to divert from the common hence become believers of "nothing". But that should not worry you. For we both know that it all comes down to love for one another. I personally no longer  care what religion the people in my life belong to, I love them and  will forever include them in the things that matter to me regardless of how they are dressed or which "holy book" they are carrying. For me its been a journey of unlearning and going back to the basics. Love is and will always be my religion.

About baby dumping and deep routed hypocrisy

I imagine this 15 year old girl, confused and scared. Battling with intense emotions of anger, shame,regret and helplessness. As tears run down her soft and tender cheeks, she unwrapped her new born child from her old  piece of chitenge,pauses for a few seconds just to look at her baby for the last time. Then throws it inside the pit latrine. As she steps out of the improvised grave of her new born child, she looks around left and right to see if anybody saw her. She heads home running without looking back. She cries all night feeling terrible and horrified. She instantly realises that this day will haunt her for the rest of her life. As she lies on her bed that night, sleepless. She remembers all the events that led to her pregnancy. It doesn't matter the circumstances leading to her pregnancy but the reality remains that she was left with no other choice at the end of the day. In an ideal situation no woman would ever wish death for their child. This also applies to abortion, we spend so much time protecting and arguing about the fetus. When life begins and whether it's right to terminate. But the truth remains nobody critically wants to address the circumstances that led to that pregnancy nor the woman's psychological battle that led to her choice. Seemingly the only wise choice in her mind at that time. All these theories about what wrong women do to their offspring is as a result of the normalisation of women being unable to have an intire say on what they want to do with their bodies before then. I believe a woman owns her body and she should decide whether or not she wants to have sex at that given time and with whoever she pleases. Only her should decide whether or not she wants to have children and when. A woman should be left to decide whether or not she wants to get married and when. Most women never get the chance to have comprehensive information on their sexual health and let alone decide on the kind of services they want to access from the clinic including family planning methods. Imagine a world, where all sex was consented, where all girls would be protected from rape, incest and all forms of sexual abuse and access to sexual health and services was treated as a basic right for everyone then we would have less abortions and baby dumping. If you are pro life and are doing nothing to protect the women in your life from rape, incest and have never taken some time to expose them to comprehensive information and services on their sexual health, then you have no moral higher ground to begin blaming them for their choice during pregnancy or after giving birth. No woman should ever be placed in circumstances where its required to choose between her child and herself. I can never begin to imagine how difficult and heartbreaking that is. Let's begin to fight for all pregnancies to be wanted before we begin to support the new born. And finally if you are pro-choice, always remember the psychological trauma involved and find ways to address it. My deepest desire is to see women that are empowered and supported to live out their choices.

Street harassment

One of the acceptable behaviours that frustrates me is street harassment. You can not walk down the streets of Blantyre or Limbe market without some vendor or worst still a group of them saying" chemwali koma ndiye mwatchenatu" sister you look great or they greet you in this rude sarcastic way and you are expected to answer. The moment you ignore their advances, they start calling you names and talking all these negative things about you mostly sexual. These vendors have no clue who you are nor do they remember your face after you are gone. To them you are just a girl clearly powerless. They live on the assumption that women's bodies are for their enjoyment or that girls choice of clothes is about their attention or satisfaction. I believe, some vendors who do this in their uncivilised state still represent a male dominance culture that has been
Socially accepted for way too long. It is characterised by disrespect towards women, intentional verbal and or physical abuse and the need to see a woman miserable. What sickens me is that it has become acceptable and nobody seems to talk about it in a way that would make daily life easier for  women and girls. There are so many irritating things that happen to young girls or women every day in the neighbourhoods, markets and schools that make life more difficult for them that are normalised as boys just being boys.  A while ago, I met a young man in his late twenties, "educated" independent,handsome,eloquent but a misogynist. The moment he started to open his mouth, I wished he had shut it. It was flowing with ego and disrespect. This made me realise how, so many men irrespective of educational background are disrespectful towards women in their words and actions but never realise it probably because they have no idea on how to act better because just like the obnoxious vendors, nobody tells them its wrong.
As a society we need to point out these wrongs in plain  truth. It doesn't matter if you think women enjoy those advances, trust me we don't. I believe mutual respect between men and women is very vital for the success of every family,village and country. Please don't tell women to adapt to these occurrences, its our society that needs to change for the better. Choose to act differently from what you were  taught to believe was acceptable. #SelfloveAfrica

For all my sisters and mothers

As I  travelled from lilongwe to Blantyre a few weeks ago, an old man probably in his fifties started shouting at a little girl, 12 or 13 years old for sitting on his seat. He shouted at her with no shame at all. He went on and on blaming the  girl, calling her names and all. The bus was so full and everyone was scrambling for the few seats. In actual sense it was another man who had taken his seat but instead of confronting him. He decided to insult this poor girl, obviously it was easier for him. In Malawi many girls suffer verbal and physical abuse because most adults believe they have a right to talk to children any way they please. What striked me the most was that, some women sitting close to the scene started defending the  girl. They asked the man to leave the little girl alone. Pleading with him to spare her the embassment. I loved the fact that these women decided  to defend her. The world has abused girls from a young age for way too long with older women believing it was tradition. They watched as their daughters were humiliated by boys and older men, all in the name of culture. Little did they know that practices such as Kuchotsa Fumbi (forced sex after initiation) were meant to satisfy sex hungry men not make their daughters better wives. The world has stood silent to domestic violence saying "zambanja salowelela" (what happens in marriage is nobody's business). The Internet has stood silent as social media has been flooded with misogynistic kind of advise. Telling rape victims its their fault for dressing inappropriately whilst men are not taught self control. Watching those two women defend this young girl got me so excited. It was evidence of a new era  in which older women are tired of being onlookers, tired of staying silent and are moving on to protect and mentor girls. As the weeks have gone by and I have seen a couple of high profile women's events take place in commemoration of the Women's month in Lilongwe. My heart is filled with hope and joy to see us move steadily towards self awareness and sisterhood. The privilege to make acquaintance with an older woman to look up to and a girl to mentor should be every lady's goal in this day and age. Gone are the days when women competed with each other. Strong women are standing up to bring forth a generation of elegant, successful women. The song of inequality among men and women will one day be history if society realises that fighting a war against women is like shooting yourself in the heart for we are the engine that drives the whole system. We are mothers to all the unborn future leaders. In the professional world, we are still experiencing a gap at decision making levels. Women are getting educated  but are mostly lost in the crowd of assistants and lower/middle management levels. Most successful women we know move from one department of government to another, not necessarily being replaced by another woman. It's quite obvious that the same women are moving across from executive director in one organisation to managing director in another. We cannot be satisfied with this trend, we cannot sit and assume that we are getting more women into power while we are not getting new faces. We have more young women  getting into university but professionally we need to do more to create more leaders/ managers. Let us work on every level to make sure that women are progressing at every level from girls to educated independent young women and moving on to Senior managers and national leaders in their field of work even beyond. I believe  womanhood is the most beautiful gift I have ever received and I will not let anyone treat me or my sisters all around the world any less because of it. I am every woman