Speakers for this insaka are:
Nana Oforiatta Ayim : Creating New Narratives for Africa and its Diasporas
For many years post independence of African nations, their dominant global narratives were still propagated by the West. Through the advent of social media and the increasing equalizing of voices heard and recognised in the global landscape, this is now changing. Nana will speak about how she has been trying to uncover and reimagine narratives of Ghana, Africa and its Diasporas through a Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, new models of museums and cultural institutions, writing, lecturing and filmmaking.
Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a Writer, Filmmaker, Art Historian and Cultural Activist who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. She is the Founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge. She published her first novel The God Child with Bloomsbury in 2019, and contributes regularly to books such as African Metropolitan Architecture. She has made films for museums such as Tate Modern, LACMA and The New Museum. She lectures a course on Decolonial History and Theory at the Architectural Association in London. She is the recipient of various awards and honours, having been named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2017; one of 12 African women making history in 2016 and one of 100 women of 2020 by Okayafrica.
Yacob Mulugetta: What direction for Africa’s Energy Future?
Energy is a critical enabler of economic transformation and social wellbeing. Nowhere is the critical nature of energy for development more pressing than in Africa. Part of the urgency is because Africa is a continent undergoing change with major aspirations to transform their economies that will create high quality jobs and enhance wellbeing. This will require heavy investments in energy systems, and given that Africa’s energy system is yet to be built, there is a window of opportunity for technology and policy innovation and experimentation. This discussion explores different energy visions that African countries can consider as they make decisions that will have repercussions for many years to come.
Yacob Mulugetta is Professor of Energy and Development Policy, and Director of the MPA programme at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London. Previously, he was an academic staff at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, UK. Between 2010 and 2013, Yacob was based at the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he helped set up the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC). Yacob was also Coordinating Lead Author of the chapter on Energy Systems of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (Working Group III on Mitigation) and a member of the Core Writing Team of the IPCC Synthesis Report.
