“Who is the empowered woman, and what’s your opinion on the use of the word ’empowered’ as a marketing tool?” In a recent interview with She Leads Africa, I was asked the above question and it made me reflect further on a theme that has always been important in my writing. Empowerment was also the…
Repowerment rather than empowerment
I’m getting impatient with the idea that the reason we should empower African women is to lift African economies, as UN under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, argued in The Sowetan on Sunday. I’m not fed up with this proposition because economic growth isn’t important for African countries (although I do think…
More on mutuality, intellectual development and mental power
Friends of Europe, a leading European think-tank that aims to stimulate thinking on the future of the EU, invited me to contribute to Debating Europe, a platform where policy makers and experts respond to questions from the public. Below are clips with my responses to the three questions that I was asked. They’re about a minute each. In a…
Intellectual development is as important as economic development
If I could change only one thing when it comes to African affairs, it would be that we focus on intellectual development as much as we focus on economic development. I made this argument, among others, in an interview with Charles Aniagolu on “Talking Africa”, ARISE TV’s weekly programme on current affairs last week. Check it out below….