Speakers

Selemani Kinyunyu | Pete Mhunzi | Rakesh R. Rajani | Young Kimaro | Leo Mkanyia | Vicensia Shule | Babu Sikare
Sarah Markes | Mejah Mbuya | Abdu Simba | Modesta L. Mahiga | Maya Wegerif | Hafiz Juma
     
Selemani Kinyunyu
  Selemani Kinyunyu is a dynamic thinker with a passion for social entrepreneurship. Selemani is founder of East Africa’s first for-profit retail carbon offset company, Offset Africa. The company works with rural farmers to convert dilapidated and unused rural lands into viable carbon projects. The carbon credits generated from the projects are then sold to eco tourists who travel to Tanzania as well as providing rural jobs and local solutions to the effects of global warming and climate change. Selemani participated and won Tanzania’s inaugural national business planning competition dubbed “Believe-Begin-Become” co-sponsored by Google and TechnoServe. Trained as a lawyer, Selemani has successfully worked in youth based urban research and marketing for over three years. Selemani is a member of the Tanzania National Resource Forum Carbon Forestry working group, Deputy Chair of the Tanzania Entrepreneurship Society and a regular blogger on a number of entrepreneurships. 
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Pete Mhunzi
  Pete Mhunzi is a native of Los Angeles, California. Pete’s first career was in the music business.  For thirteen years Pete made his living playing the guitar with Rhythm & Blues organizations.  At thirty-two, Pete decided to go to college and enrolled at Cal-State University, Los Angeles as an Afro-American Studies major.  The year was 1969. In 1970 Pete began to study Kiswahili.  A passion developed that has not subsided in the forty years that have passed since then. In 1973 Pete graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a minor in Drama.  That same summer Pete made his first trip to Africa, going first to Kenya as a guest of his professor of Kiswahili and Economics, Professor Paul Mulwa Sumbi. On his own, Pete continued the journey and went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Pete began his teaching career the following fall semester at CSULA, Department of Pan-African Studies.  Professor Sylvester Obi Akalonu of Nigeria hired him.  Pete’s first assignment was “The History of African American Music.” In 1975 he entered the Graduate School of Management at UCLA with a double concentration of Marketing & International Management. In 1977 Pete graduated with the degree of Master of Business Administration. Due to his linguistic experience in studying Kiswahili, he became a teacher of English as a second language in a middle school and an adult evening school. After seven years he began teaching history at Pasadena City College. In 2008 Pete retired as a professor of history at Pasadena City College after teaching there for twenty-five years. Pete is presently involved with an organization of Tanzanians that are seeking investment opportunities in Tanzania, Tanzania Investment Group in the U.S.A. (TIGU) and serves as the secretary. Pete is also involved with the African American Linguists Association (AAL), where he also serves as the chairman for the Western Region.
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Rakesh R. Rajani 
  Rakesh R. Rajani is the Head of Twaweza (meaning ‘we can make it happen’ in Swahili), a new ten-year initiative to enhance access to information, citizen agency and public accountability in East Africa. Until the end of 2007 he served as the founding Executive Director of HakiElimu, an independent organization that promotes public engagement and enables citizens to hold government to account in Tanzania. Rakesh’s interests include the connections between information, public pressure and social accountability; political economy of policy making; and budget transparency and public engagement. Rakesh advises/serves on several boards, including Aidspan – a watchdog of the Global Fund, the International Budget Partnership (IBP), the Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania (FCS), the Tanzania Media Fund (TMF), the Governance Notice-board at REPOA (TGN), and the Hewlett/Gates Foundations initiative on Quality Education in Developing Countries (QEDC). He has also been a fellow of Harvard University since 1998, most recently involved in its Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS (JLICA). Rakesh has written and/or edited over 300 papers, popular publications, and op-eds in English and Swahili.
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Young Kimaro
  Young Kimaro was born in Korea in 1946. Most of her secondary education was received in England. Following a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yonsei University, Korea, Fulbright scholarship took her to the US in 1969. At the State University of New York in Binghamton, while studying African politics Young met a Tanzanian Ph.D. student in economics from Kilimanjaro. In 1970 Young swapped “MA” for “MRS” (or is it the other way around?). Years later, she pursued her own Ph.D. program in economics (all but dissertation), at the University of Maryland. Young had an early start with work. As an eight-year-old child-actress, she appeared regularly on national TV in Korea. In college, she worked as a newscaster in English language on the national radio. Her real career, however, was with the World Bank, spanning 29 years until retirement in 2001. In those years she worked in varying capacity. As Country Officer/Economist (Uganda, Somalia and Mauritius), shaping a country’s development strategy was of foremost concern. Education project and sector work required constant search for solutions to challenges that countries faced in the sector (Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia). Young also worked in agriculture (Thailand and India) in other capacities. Presently, Young volunteers for Mwika Development Trust Fund (MWIDEFU), a village development NGO in Kilimanjaro, and writes a weekly column, “Development with Commonsense” for the Saturday Daily News. For leisure, Young sings with a community choir and reads with a book club in Moshi, and dabbles on the piano in her spare time. Young considers herself a citizen of the world, but foremost a passionately concerned citizen of Tanzania.
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Leo Mkanyia
  Leo Mkanyia is a 28-year-old blues guitarist and songwriter from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who was born into a family of musicians.

Leo has been playing music for 20 years. Inspired by his father, a well-known jazz musician in the famous Mlimani Park Orchestra, Leo spent years playing his father’s guitar when he was alone in the house and copying the chords he’d seen him play. Music doesn’t pay in Tanzania, and so his father was adamant his son should follow another career. When he found Leo playing a classic Tanzanian song one day, he decided to give his son his wish, and taught him all that he knew.

Today they play together; his father plays bass guitar on the four tracks, and lead guitar on two.

Leo began to play professionally at 18. He worked as a peer educator, singing songs on the street to educate people on HIV/AIDS, and in four local bands. Currently he plays at venues and events around Tanzania – solo and with the Wao Band. He worked previously as a French teacher; today he teaches private guitar lessons and is studying in order to study music overseas.

He is fluent in three languages – Swahili, French, and English. His vocals are in Swahili and French, but he prefers to sing in his mother tongue, Swahili. He is currently continuing his studies in the three languages.

As a solo artist Leo has created his own modern style, which he calls Swahili Blues

Leo CD Profile
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Jamie Yang 
  Jamie Yang is the co-founder and CEO of EGG-energy, a for-profit business with the goal of making electricity services affordable to low-income homes and small businesses. Operating in rural and peri-urban Tanzania, EGG-energy takes power at its source – a grid connection or an off-grid power generating station – and packages it in an inventory of portable, rechargeable batteries. EGG-energy customers can power lights, mobile phones, and radios for less than they currently spend on kerosene, disposable batteries, and charging services. After winning several business plan competitions and raising money from a private investor, Jamie has been in Tanzania since June 2009 getting the venture off the ground. Prior to starting EGG-energy, Jamie completed a PhD at MIT with thesis research in quantum computation, worked at a microbial fuel cell startup, and did modeling and design work at IBM.
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Vicensia Shule
  Vicensia Shule is a performing artist working at the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She has both BA (Fine and Performing Arts) and MA (Performing Arts) from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She is currently finalizing her PhD (Theatre Studies) at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany. Vicensia serves as a board member for various national and international institutions such as Southern Africa Theatre Initiative (SATI), Eastern Africa Theatre Institute (EATI), Tanzania Theatre Center (TzTC) among others. Currently she is a Vice President of the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA) General Meeting Committee. She is a contributor, reviewer and a critic for various performing arts journals, books, programs and productions. Independently she works as a producer and a director for film, radio and television programs. 
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Babu Sikare
  Babu Sikare AKA Albino Fulani, born in Tanzania with the condition of albinism is exemplary of the African ideals of brotherhood and perseverance. Through his artistic exploits, Babu has created musical lyrics shedding light on the many social challenges facing Tanzania as a nation, with emphasis on an issue close to his heart: the plight of the albino national. His music includes the critically acclaimed self titled album “Albino Fulani.” Not only has Babu challenged the status quo through his music, he is also the founder and CEO of NGO Afrobino.org; whose purpose is not only to change uninformed attitudes in the populace, but to amass support for the needed care of albinos in terms of education, health, and social justice.

With perseverance, Babu never let his skin condition stop him from achieving his goals. Having completed his basic education in Tanzania, he then moved to the United States for higher learning, where he earned his BA in Business & Management from the University of Phoenix. Babu is also the first Tanzanian albino to be featured on the big screen in the movie “Baby Powder.” While still in the infancy of his career, through his life and his work, Babu is an inspiration not only to the albino population, but to all of us as a people. In the words of Albino Fulani himself “My mission, my passion is to restore hope for a better future for every albino in Tanzania...I feel God made me the way I am with a purpose..."
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Sarah Markes
  Illustrator, painter and graphic designer.

Sarah Markes trained in graphic design and illustration at Central St. Martin’s College of Art in London. After leaving college she worked as an illustrator in the UK in between various global wanders including traveling overland, in a circuitous route, from Beijing to Istanbul. She documented her travels in sketches and photographs, the inspiration for paintings and commissions created on her return to UK. She had several solo exhibitions in London and Brighton and created book covers for a variety of international publishers.

In 1998 she decided to focus her travels and arranged some voluntary work Malawi, which in due course developed into nearly four years working for a variety of education and development initiatives. During this time she concentrated more on graphic design while working with a variety of Malawian artists and writers to produce a series of educational comic books and other print media, from Rabbit Breeding guidelines for the Paralegal Advisory Service to Safe Motherhood training games and an exhibition documenting juvenile justice through the lives of teenage prison inmates.

Having first visited Tanzania in 2000, she decided to move to Dar es Salaam in 2002 to work for a local publishing company. Eight years and two other jobs later she is still working as a designer in Dar in between painting, writing, illustrating and traveling. Her work focuses on creative communication projects in the health, education and environment sectors both in Tanzania and its neighboring countries.

Since her first glimpse of Dar es Salaam she has been captivated by the city’s street life and architecture, which has been the inspiration for much of her recent artwork – documenting Dar life and posing questions about the urban environment in relation to identity, history and development.
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Mejah Mbuya
  Mejah (Frederick) Mbuya is a multi-talented, dynamic, entrepreneur, community organizer, presenter, environmentalist, youth activist, avid cyclist and painter. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from the University of Dar es Salaam and has worked with an impressive variety of organizations. In 2002, Mejah was the Principal Secretary for Community Networking Forum (CNF), a non-profit organization with the mission of empowering the community through environmental education. Following this, he served as the Deputy Director for Youth Action Volunteers (YAV), a Dar es Salaam-based non-profit organization that educates youth on sexual reproductive health. Mejah also held the position of Brand Manager for Tanzania’s first privately owned media organization, Business Times Ltd. In line with his dedication to youth empowerment, Mejah co-founded BANG! (Believe And Never Give up), in 2003, the first youth-centered magazine in Tanzania. In the same year, Mejah resigned from his position with Business Times to fully dedicate his efforts to then newly founded Afri Roots, an eco-tourism company specializing in outdoor sports. An avid cyclist, it seems only natural that in 2006, Mejah co-founded the Cyclists Organization in Dar es Salaam, Umma wa Wapanda Baisikeli (UWABA). The organization has now branched out to other cities, such as Tanga, and will soon expand to Arusha and Zanzibar. More recently, Mejah has presented his papers at various forums. In September 2008 he gave a presentation encouraging cycling in Yaoundé-Cameroun at a World Bank-sponsored conference organized by the Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (GTKP). Shortly following this presentation, in October 2008, Mejah gave a presentation in Nairobi on East African City Air Pollution Control. The event was organized by UNDP. He also shared a presentation, illustrating the experiences of UWABA, at a WHO conference on Road Crashes (Accidents) in Brussels, Belgium. Among other activities, Mejah is a fixer Aljazeera TV and the New York Times.

He has had public addresses at Columbia University, Harvard University as well as University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Mejah is a board member of the British Council Youth Art Program in Dar es Salaam, known as Words and Pictures (WaPi), and he participates at monthly youth art events in various African cities such as Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Abuja, Lagos, Accra and Zanzibar.
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Abdu Simba
  Abdu Simba is a Tanzanian author, playwright, film producer and director. Abdu holds a B.A. (honors) in History and Politics from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. As a professional, he has developed significant business experience as a director of a number of firms engaged in consumer goods manufacturing, insurance brokerage, advisory services and entertainment. Abdu is a partner of Serengeti Advisers Limited, a Tanzanian Business Advisory Services firm, where he specializes in Media Analysis and Communication Strategies advice. He is also a founding trustee of The Flame Tree Media Trust; a non-profit organization created to support and promote creativity in the Tanzanian visual arts and media industries. In 2003, Abdu co-authored, a Tanzanian scenarios booklet, titled, Tutafika Tanzania - Imagining our Future. From September to November 2004, Abdu was the book and film reviewer for, The Citizen, a Tanzanian English language daily newspaper. In February 2005, Abdu authored an original play, "Sema Kweli," for the Tanzania British Council's "Theatre in Education" project. Abdu's theatre production was followed by numerous other achievements in the creative arts. In the same year, he participated in Maisha Screenwriters Lab conducted by acclaimed Hollywood director, Mira Nair and was contracted by South African film production company, DV8 Films, to write an original screenplay titled, "The Informal Citizen." Abdu's short films include "Imagining the Future-The East African Scenarios Project"(2006) and "Weakness"(2009). The former is a 35-minute documentary on the East African Scenarios process for the Society for International Development and the latter is a drama. "Weakness" was officially selected for various film festivals such as, Kenya International Film Festival (2009), Amakula Kampala International Film Festival (2009), ION International Film Festival (2009), Pan African Film Festival (2010), New York African Film Festival (2010). In October 2006, Abdu was contracted by MFD Tanzania to write feature length screenplay titled, The Cost of Love, about an elderly caregiver's struggle with the effects of HIV AIDS. Branching out to yet another area of the arts, in January 2007, he also wrote and created a comic book concept, "The Vijana Crew," for Tanzania Advertising Agency, Creative Eye. In 2008, Abdu contributed as the writer, to an MNET AFRICA-commissioned documentary on Julius Nyerere. The documentary, "The Legacy of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere," aired in 2009. From 2008 to 2009, Abdu was the Head Writer of a 13 part TV series, "The Agency," commissioned by MNET AFRICA. Episodes of the series aired in 2009. 
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Modesta Lilian Mahiga
  Modesta Lilian Mahiga, founder and Managing Director of Professional Approach Ltd, has been in Human Resources development for the past 6 years. She combines her background in law with management experience in human resources to lead a team of young, entrepreneurial Tanzanians in the areas of Training & Personal Development, Labour Relations, Research & Development and Recruitment.

A professional that has positioned herself to be in the forefront of private sector initiatives to develop Tanzania’s human resource capacity by empowering Tanzanians to positively change the way they think, perform and present themselves. Having found a niche in personal development as a means with which to drive Tanzania’s economic development, she capitalises on experience in human resources capacity building, familiarity with navigating in business given Tanzania’s socio-economic position and the dynamics of the labour market to give her an edge over both local and international competition.

Modesta is a renowned writer, with weekly columns on The Guardian and Business Times newspapers, ASPIRE and Bang! Magazines. She has signed up with Clouds FM for a two hour weekly radio show and with TBC1 for a weekly TV Talk Show. Apart from her motivational speaking engagements, Modesta is one of the few young entrepreneur mentors who gives of her time daily strongly believing that “only developed people, develop nations.”
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Maya Wegerif
  Maya Wegerif is a fierce eighteen-year-old South African Poet currently living in Dar es Salaam. In her fearless writing she challenges sexist, racial and political issues that plague our society from an Afr(i can)ist perspective. Maya was first published at the age of eleven when her mom found a poem of hers and entered it into a local poetry competition. Later, Maya’s poems were published in the Timbila Journal of Onion Skin poetry a collection of outspoken poems by African writers. Since then Maya, who defines her style as more spoken and performance orientated than literary, has performed in several places all over Dar es Salaam. Recently she collaborated with a handful of artists to create the multi-media gallery named The Roof of Africa. Maya was recruited as a member of a group of East and Southern African artists who crafted the Climate Change Song “Aint Got Nothin.” This young artist is determined and involved, firm in her belief that the solution is Afrika for Afrika.  
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Hafiz Juma
  Born in Canada, raised in Tanzania and having lived in multiple countries, Hafiz sees himself firmly entrenched within the international experience. Yet, in spite of this, he has always been especially interested in the idea of identity as relating to nationalism. Being a fourth-generation Tanzanian of Asian descent, questions of belonging, organic history and identity formation have played a big part in the formulation of his thinking. In addition to this, he is also deeply concerned with institutionalized structures in Tanzania, it politics, issues of development and art.

Deep down, he considers himself a writer, both of fiction and commentary, and has always been drawn to the idea of the narrative as a vehicle for change. In 2005, having taken a year off after graduating from high school, he became involved with multiple projects in Tanzania and gained immensely valuable, practical experience of the contextual realities of implementing projects related to his abstract ideals. Since then, he has been involved in formulating policy, developing and implementing project plans, idea incubation, R&D, capital mobilization and content creation in a number of fields.

Hafiz is currently the Creative Director of E-Fulusi Africa, a Tanzanian based R&D company focused on mobile technology and financial services, the Creative Director of AIM Group Tanzania, a digital marketing and content based company. Particularly focused on facilitating content production and distribution in the region. He has written columns in Tanzania, continues to write and work on a number of interconnected projects, and is completing an Individualized degree of study at the Gallatin school of New York University.

Hafiz is constantly working towards creating forums of free discussion, creativity and engaging and active thinking, expressed through his philosophy of collaboration and the belief in the power of ideas and most recently through TEDxDar of which he is the licensee and Chair of the organizing committee.
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